22 On the Farming of Essex. 
The process of cultivation pursued is, after the crop of wheat 
or barley is cleared, to plough up the land immediately, and give 
two or three deep ploughings and harrowings before the winter. 
The land is then put upon small ridges from 2 feet to 2 feet 
6 inches wide ; but the size usually •adopted is such as to allow 
the cart-wheels to pass up two furrows without injuring the ridges. 
The land is suffered to lie in this state until the following spring, 
unless a suitable opportunity offers to carry on the manure in 
the winter months during frost, and afterwards plough it in. If 
this is not accomplished, and the weather permits, one ploughing 
or more is given in the spring before carting on the manure, 
unless the land should be in a sufficiently clean and pulverized 
state from the previous ploughings and harrowings given before 
the winter. The quantity of manure applied is about 18 loads, 
of 30 bushels each, of good compost that has been partially re- 
duced, so as to be easdy ploughed in. If the manure is not suf- 
ficiently decomposed, the roots do not succeed so well during 
drought, should it ensue in the following summer. After the 
manure is carefully spread in the bottom of the furrows, the land 
is ploughed, lightly rolled, and the seed* either dibbled or drilled 
as soon after as can be, and again lightly rolled, unless the 
weather should be very moist, when it is considered best to leave 
the drills only lightly covered. In dibbling as well as drilling care 
should be taken not to deposit the seed more than one inch in 
depth, putting it in either with a small dibble, or by pressing it 
in with the thumb and fore finger alone, at a distance of one foot 
apart, and inserting from two to three seeds in each hole, and 
filling the holes by punching the soil in with the back of a h(je. 
From 35. to 45. per acre is paid for this, and if well performed, 
a plant may be almost insured. 
The drill is, however, preferred as more expeditious and certain, 
especially in dry seasons ; as, from the seeds being contained in a 
hard capsule, from three to five in number in each, and from being 
deposited thickly in the row by the drill, a plant is more certainly 
obtained, and the plant can be left more regularly, in a majority 
of cases, than when dibbled. Mice as well as wireworm are 
very destructive to the seed and young plants, and a larger pro- 
portion is therefore the more necessary to ensure success. The 
plants also grow more rapidly when they come thickly ; therefore 
not less than 3 lbs. of seed should be deposited upon each acre, 
care being first taken to ascertain that the seed lias not been pre- 
viously destroyed by mice, which is sometimes the case, and which 
an inexperienced eye would not detect. 
As the plants appear, the greatest attention should be paid to 
• The time of sowing is from the beginning of April to the middle of 
May. 
