AGRICULTURE. 
efficacious, even although it should have 
been extremely affected by the disease. A 
less time is insufficient. On cold, wet, and 
backward soils the best season for putting 
this grain into the earth is September , par- 
ticularly if the weather be rainy, as wheat 
should never be sown in a dry season. On 
dry and warm soils the sowing may be best 
postponed till October. In proportion to 
the earliness of the sowing a less quantity 
of seed is sufficient. The best preparation 
for it is by beans. Clover forms also an ex- 
cellent preparation for it : and on a farm 
dry enough for turnips, and rich enough for 
wheat, the Norfolk practice of turnips, 
bailey, clover, and wheat, is perhaps the 
most eligible that can be adopted. 
By the dibbling of wheat, for a fortnight 
before which the land must be ploughed and 
rolled down with a heavy roller, the seed is 
deposited in the centre of the flag, and the 
regular treading which the land receives 
presses down the farrows, and gives it a 
most valuable degree of firmness. The 
chief attention required in dibbling is to 
make the holes deep enough, and to see 
that the children drop the seed equally, 
without scattering. After this dropping is 
completed, bush-harrowing follows. The 
quantity of seed should be about six pecks 
in two rows in a flag. If the drill-machine 
be used, the preparation of the land by 
ploughing, harrowing, and rolling must be 
extremely accurate, whether for one stroke 
of the machine, or for a bout of it, and 
the quantity of seed should be the same as 
that used in dibbling. In February, slight 
dressings are with great advantage spread 
over the green crop of this grain ; and it 
the farmer has his choice for this purpose, 
he can never hesitate about taking them fi oni 
dung ; as dnngs of all sorts are excellent, 
and no other manures, like these, are uni- 
versally applicable. In the drill-husbandry 
the practice of hoeing is of the first impor- 
tance, and has been already mentioned. 
If horse-hoeing be not employed, the hand- 
hoe may be used to great advantage, and 
should be performed first early in March, 
and the second time in the beginning of 
April. A scarifier is by many employed in- 
stead of the hoe, with the same object and 
effect. Whatever the operation, employed 
with this view, may be, the bottom should, 
witli respect to wheat, be left firm and 
untouched. This is of particular impor- 
tance. 
A mild and open winter is far from being 
favourable to this grain, pushing it forward 
with too rapid vegetation, and also cherish- 
ing those weeds which become its most in- 
jurious enemies. No weather is so injurious 
to wheat in the ground as wet. If, how- 
ever, it have a good blooming time, though 
the rest of the summer, both before and 
after this period, may be unkindly, little 
apprehension for the crop need be enter- 
tained from any State of the weather. 
If wheat be attacked by mildew, which 
is most likely to occur in the month of July, 
the only effectual application is the sickle, 
which ought not to be delayed for a mo- 
ment, though the ear be perfectly green. 
Barley requires a mellow soil, and when 
sown upon clay, therefore, extraordinary 
care is required to stir the land immediately 
after the removal of the previous crop ; and 
with this view the practice of rib-plough- 
ing, which exposes the greatest possible 
quantity of surface to the air and frost, has 
been employed by many. This object 
should, at all events, be gained, which- 
ever method be adopted for it, of the many 
which have been suggested, and are indeed 
practised. Scarification, with Mr. Cooke’s 
machine for this purpose, instead of plough- 
ing, is found to be an excellent method. 
In proportion to the tenaciousness of the 
soil must be the extent of this operation, 
which is easily dispatched, even when re- 
peated, leaving the lands, or stiches, in ex- 
cellent order for the drill-machine to ad- 
vance and perfect its work. 
The proper season for getting barley into 
the ground is March. The most useful pre- 
paration for it is by turnips. To have the 
land dry for sowing, is of more conse- 
quence for this grain, than it is for almost 
any other, It should always follow eithef 
an ameliorating crop or a fallow, and in 
many cases it should be followed by clover. 
The quantity of seed barley should be in- 
creased as the season advances, as early 
sown crops have more time to tiller than 
later ones : and in the. same proportion the 
importance of the drill husbandry with re- 
gard to this article increases ; as, if sown in 
the latter end of February in the broadcast 
method, it would get the start of weeds, 
which, if it be sown early in April, would 
extremely annoy it, according to the old 
mode, but by the hoeing practice may be 
easily removed. 
Oats should never be sown after other 
corn crops (as the land is by this practice 
too much exhausted), and should receive 
the same preparation as bailey ; a circum- 
stance often not sufficiently attended to. 
