THE EARMEr’s manual. 
91 
with the plough, your fui rows smoolhcd gently with the 
vharrow, and your seed, say from 2 to 3 bushels to the 
arre, sown early in May, and covered lightly with the 
iKM'row. If you sow on the furrows, and cover deep 
with the harrow, or sow on a stilT soil, your hemp will 
pull very hard. 
Paring and Burning. 
This mode of culture in England, appears to stand 
high in the estimation of Sir John Sinclair, and all the 
best English writers ; and where labour is cheap, as in 
England, it doubtless, in many instances, will answer 
well ; but the true result of this mode of tillage ap- 
pears to arise from the fertilizing powers of the ashes 
derived Jrom the sward, when pared and burnt*. So 
far as this goes to show the value of ashes sown upon 
land, to increase the value of tillage, leads me to in- 
tjuire, whether the sward, when turned in to rot, un- 
der the furrows, together with one half of the expense 
of paring and burning, when laid out in wood-ashes, 
and sown upon the tops of the furrows, would not, in 
this country, answer a much better purpose for the 
succeeding crops, and give a more permanent, and 
lasting value to the land, for an after tillage ? If any 
one can be at a loss for an answer, let him try and 
see. 
Summer Fallowing. 
This is one of the most important branches of good 
farming, and upon which has arisen a great variety 
of opinion, and practice. Some farmers are of opin- 
ion that the ploughings for a summer fallow, cannot 
be too frequent, and that all fallow crops are injurious 
to the land, and particularly to the succeeding crops. 
• Quere. Whether lime sown upon the sward before ploughinif, 
and the crop then dressed with ashes, would not be jnore valuable 
ttiaii paring and burning. 
