AGRICULTURE. 
posed than a considerable larger one with- 
out this practice. The operation may un- 
doubtedly be beneficial in various instances 
and soils, and experiments indeed have 
evinced that it is so. The use of the roller, 
however, upon grass lands of a certain de- 
scription will be admitted to be preferable ; 
and with regard to arable land this new pro- 
cess by no means interferes with the appli- 
cation of the roller for all the purposes which 
have been mentioned. 
DRILL HUSBANDRY. 
The system of drill husbandry has been 
long known to be extremely preferable on 
sandy soils and dry loams, and in Norfolk 
particularly it made a rapid and extensive 
progress upon such lands. It has latterly 
been introduced on the strong soils of Suffolk. 
The objects of this husbandry are the pro- 
motion of the growth of plants by hoeing, 
and the saving of seed; objects it will be 
universally admitted of great importance. 
It was well known, that in gardens the hoe- 
ing and transplantation of vegetables often 
double their vigour : analogy therefore na- 
turally led to the conclusion, that a similar 
result would occur from the same manage- 
ment of arable lands, and experience has 
decided both the practicability and the ad- 
vantage of it. Land sowed with, wheat, 
however well prepared and finished it may 
be in the autumn, sinks in winter, so that in 
the spring it possesses too great tenacity to 
admit the free extension of the roots for the 
collection of nourishment, and stands in ex- 
treme need of ploughing and hoeing to coun- 
teract these effects. Grain sown before 
winter therefore requires the process of 
hoeing inexpressibly more than what is sown 
in the spring ; the land in the latter case not 
having had the same time to harden, nor to 
produce many weeds by exposure to the 
winter snow and rain. 
As the vigour of the plants upon the drill 
system is very considerably increased, the 
land must be sowed much thinner than in 
the old practice; a circumstance which, in 
unreflecting minds, has operated as a con- 
siderable objection, it appearing at the first 
view, which on such is not only strong, but 
often indelibly impressive, that the vacant 
spots are completely lost or wasted. In the 
common practice, however, even in the 
most productive lands, the seeds, though 
very thickly sown, produce each but one or 
two ears, whereas two or three are univer- 
sally produced by each in the latter mode, 
and sometimes a single one will produce 
18 or go. In the old method, there being 
by far more plants than nourishment, many 
must perish without attaining maturity, and 
many of the remainder can exist only in a 
languid and drooping state, whereas in the 
other method all have as much nutriment as 
they require, and, though comparatively few, 
being far more vigorous in their vegetation, 
they afford a larger produce than the nu- 
merous but sickly plants cultivated in the 
ordinary method. 
For the application of this new mode, 
however, it is expedient that land should 
have been brought into good tilth by the old 
method, which being done, it should be so 
thinly sown as to leave sufficient room for 
the plants to extend themselves. It must be 
divided for this purpose into rows, 30 inches 
distant from each other, which will give an 
interval of two feet between the rows, every 
plant thereby having ample room to extend 
its roots and collect its food. In such con- 
siderable intervals, also, the earth may be 
hoed round the plants without the hazard of 
injury to them. The first hoeing should be 
applied when the wheat is in leaf, before 
winter, and is designed to draw off the wet 
and dispose the earth to be mellowed by 
frost. The second, after the hard frosts are 
passed, is calculated for making the plants 
branch freely. The third may be very 
slight, and should be given when the ears 
begin to appear. The last should be given 
when the wheat is in bloom, and is of the 
greatest importance, as it makes the ears fill 
at the extremities, and increases the size of 
the grain. In the middle of the intervals a 
deep furrow must be traced, and the earth 
be thrown to the right and left on the foot 
of the plants. By the careful application of 
the earth in this manner the plants are sup- 
ported, and prevented from being laid, and 
the ground is prepared for the next sowing, 
in which the seed is to be put in the middle 
of the ground that formed the intervals. 
The practice of hoeing may take place at 
almost any time in light and dry soils ; but 
on strong and clay ones, in which the ex- 
tremes of wet and dry are particularly ini- 
mical to vegetation, the seasons for its exer- 
cise are often short and critical. 
As vigorous plants, such as are produced 
by this system, require a longer period for 
attaining maturity, the com thus cultivated 
must be sown earlier than in the usual mode, 
The intervals are usually prepared for sow- 
ing again, by placing some well-rotted dung 
in the deep furrows made in the middle of 
them, and this dung must be covered by the 
