368 
Oiitlie Use of the Water-Drill. 
some spare building, that the large hard lumps, which are 
generally found in considerable quantities in the guano, might be 
thoroughly broken and pulverised before going into the field. 
But where superphosphate alone is used this is altogether unne- 
cessary. My plan then is, to take the bags of manure, just as 
they come from the manufacturer, into the field ; a man then 
prepares it for use. He has a wheelbarrow and a fine sieve, 
with a shovel ; he takes the manure from the bag with the 
shovel, places it in the sieve, and then sifts it into the wheel- 
barrow ; the lumps M'hich will not pass through the sieve he 
throws into a small tub taken to the field for that purpose ; these 
he breaks until they are sufficiently small. I usually sow from 
2 to 3 cwt. per acre, and with a 4 ft. 6-inch drill sow 7 acres 
per day. One man will sift all the manure, help to fill the drill with 
water, and, if in a field where the supply can be obtained from 
the ditches, will also keep the large tub filled with water. In 
such cases this single man is the only additional labour re- 
quired by the water-drill over the dry, and, indeed, where that is 
used, some preparation of the manure is necessary. Where the 
water has to be conveyed a distance, as previously stated, an 
additional man with a horse will be required, and sometimes a 
boy also to pump. 
The whole of the experiments I have yet made with the water- 
drill have been made with the one on the new principle, which I 
have already so fully described. Regarding it as the best for general 
purposes, and, where carefully and skillfully managed, the most 
equal distributor of the manure, I have been led to use it almost 
entiiely, and the remarks I am about to make as to these experi- 
ments and the general workins: of the drill will be made with 
reference to this exclusively. Several modifications of this prin- 
ciple have been made by Messrs. Reeves, more especially as 
regards the discharge of the liquid through the plates, but I pre- 
fer the original plan, and still adhere to it ; the only exception 
being, that I have shortened the length of the steel stirrers. 
In sowing mangold, coleseed, or turnips (the last-named, how- 
ever, are scarcely ever sown in this locality), I invariably use only 
two coulters, Avhich, with a 4 ft. 6-inch drill, make the rows just 
27 inches apart. Careful and close observation during the last 
five years has fully and thoroughly convinced me that this 
distance is in every respect better for either of these crops than 
three coulters 18 inches apart would be. The horse-hoe can be 
used freely and frequently, and a stronger and more vigorous 
plant secured. When sowing any crop, where only two coulters 
are employed, we use plates in the cistern for the discharge of 
the liquid, with holes punctured through them from one-half to 
