drills trampled. For example: On finishing the drill h g, on the plough coming down ba, the furrow-horse walks down the finished drill it, and the other walks on the firm ground down de; and the same ground is gone over by the horses on the plough laying over the small furrow towards cd on passing up the hollow a b. When the plough comes down fe to lay over the large furrow towards, and to finish the drill dc, the furrow-horse comes down ba, and the other upon the firm land alongside fe; and thus the finished hollow a b is twice trampled, first in guiding the furrow-horse while the plough is forming the drill d e when coming down fe, and again on the plough passing up ef to lay the small furrow towards hg for the next drill, which is completed in its turn when the plough comes down p, and the furrow-horse tramples the finished hollow fe.

(2183.) When the ground is quite flat, double drills may be made 27 inches wide, and the same width may be adopted when ridges of 18 feet are visible, for 8 drills of 27 inches just cover an 18 feet ridge. A feering of 6 ridges of 18 feet just includes 64 drills of 27 inches, so that where drills are desired of 27 inches in width, and no more, the land, should be in 18-feet ridges, if ridged, or it should be flat, otherwise some of the 27-inch drills on 15-feet ridges will be left in the open furrow, a position which in strong land cannot fail to prove injurious to that part of the turnip crop in winter. When the soil is thorough-drained, it is of no importance where the drills are situated; but till that operation is performed, it is necessary to attend to the safety of the crop in the most unfavourable circumstance of soil by judicious management.

(2184.) It may have occurred to you to inquire, that if a perfect drill is formed by a bout of the common plough, why it is that perfect drills are not formed by one landing with a double mould-board plough? The inquiry is a natural one, and it can receive a satisfactory answer. Were a drill perfectly formed, a vertical section would give a triangle whose height is equal to half the length of the base. The height to which a common plough can elevate the crest of a drill is that of the ear of its mould-board, which, in the common (Small's) plough, Plate X., is 12 inches; and this height is conformable to a drill of only 24 inches in width. Such a plough, therefore, to make a drill of the usual width of 27 inches, will either leave a flat space on its tops of 3 inches in breadth, or it will leave a sharp crested ridglet of 3 inches in breadth at the bottom of the hollow of the drill. A common plough varies in width from the ear of the mould-board to the landside from 18 inches (Wilkie's) to 20 inches (Small's). A bout of Wilkie's plough could thus make a drill 36 inches, and that of Small's 40 inches in width in a bout,

were it ploughed to the full breadth either was capable of; but as drills are only made 27 inches in width, the second furrow is taken by the plough going nearer the side of a drill than in the middle of the hollow between two drills, and it is this expedient which gives to drills one sloping and another more perpendicular side. A double mould-board plough, constructed of similar dimensions of an ordinary one, would make drills much wider than are required; but even if its mould-boards were set as narrow as to make a 27-inch drill, it is found, that, on account of the width of double mould-board ploughs below, they cannot go so deep as to give drills their proper elevation of 13 inches, required to bury the requisite quantity of manure deposited in them.

(2185.) There is a species of drilling executed by the small plough, fig. 370, which has received the appellation of ribbing. In executing

Fig. 370.

THE SMALL, OR RIBBING OR PARING PLOUGH.

this mode of ploughing, it exactly follows the mode of making single drills; and of the two modes of making these, it is necessarily restricted to that which lays the furrow-slices towards the unploughed ground, because the ribs being necessarily narrow, were clods and stones to fall into the hollows, which the other method would infallibly cause, the purpose of the ribs forming a kindly seed-bed would in a great measure be frustrated. The ribs with great pains can be formed as narrow as 9 inches, and by careless ploughmen they are made as wide as 14 inches, so that 12 inches may be considered a good medium width. They are always formed on ridges, never on the flat, and only used in seed-furrowing. The best width of feering for making them is 2 ridges, beginning on the furrow-brow of the ridges, and laying the furrow-slices into the middle of the open furrows between the two ridges; by hupping the horses the seed is kept out of the open-furrow, and retained upon the best land of the ridges. Ribs are formed in the length of the ridges. Supposing them to be 12 inches asunder, there will just be 30 ribs in every feering of 2 ridges of 15 feet each. Another implement which makes a number of ribs at once is described below.

49. OF SOWING SPRING-WHEAT AND GRASS-SEEDS.

"When winter frosts constrain the field with cold,

The fainty root can take no steady hold."

DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

(2186.) Wheat cannot be sown in spring in every sort of weather, and upon every variety of soil. Unless soil possesses a certain degree of firmness, that is, contains some clay, it is not considered adapted for the growth of wheat, at least it is more profitable to sow barley upon it; and unless the weather is as dry as to allow strong soil to be ploughed in the proper season, it is also more profitable to defer the wheat, and sow barley in due season. The general climate of a place affects the question of sowing wheat there in spring, and it is a curious problem in climate why wheat sown in autumn should thrive at a place where spring-wheat will not. Elevation of position even in a favourable latitude produces the same effects. Experience in these well known circumstances renders the farmers of Scotland chary of sowing wheat in spring, unless the soil is in excellent condition, and the weather very favourable for the purpose.

(2187.) When wheat is sown in spring, it is usually after turnips, whether these have been entirely stripped from the land, or partly consumed on the ground by sheep. In whichever of these states of the turnip crop may be chosen to be followed by wheat, it is not sufficient merely to raise a crop of turnips by dint of a plentiful supply of manure at one time upon an otherwise exhausted soil, that will ensure a good crop of spring-wheat; the land itself should be and have been for some time, in good heart, otherwise the attempt will inevitably end in disappointment.

(2188.) On a farm possessing the advantages of favourable soil and climate, and on which it is the custom to sow spring wheat every year, the turnip-land is ploughed with that view up to a certain period of the season, not later than the beginning of March; and even on a farm on which spring-wheat can only be sown occasionally, when a favourable field comes in the course of rotation, or the weather proves tempting, the land should be so ploughed as that the advantage may be taken to sow wheat. Should circumstances warrant the attempt, or matters take an unfavourable turn for the purpose, there will be no harm, as the soil can afterwards be worked for barley.

(2189.) Land should only receive one furrow, the seed-furrow, for spring-wheat, for if it is ploughed oftener after a manured green crop, and in spring, when it has become tender by the winter frost, it would want that firmness which is essential for the growth of wheat. The nature of this seed-furrow depends upon circumstances. If the land presents a visible form of ridge, and if it soon becomes wet, the best way to plough it is to gather it up, and then it will have the appearance of being twice gathered up, as in fig. 139. If it is flat, and the subsoil somewhat moist, gathering up from the flat will answer best, as in fig. 133. If the soil has a dry subsoil, though of a pretty strong clay itself, it may be cast with gore-furrows (837.). And should it be fine. loam resting on an open bottom, the ridges may be cast together without gore-furrows, as in fig. 135. It is probable that a whole field may not be obtained at once to plough up in either of these ways, and indeed such an event rarely happens in regard to preparing land for spring-wheat; but when it is determined to sow it, a few ridges should be ploughed up as convenience offers, and then a number of acres, sown at one time. In this way a whole field may be got sown by degrees, whereas to wait until the sowing of the whole field at once can be obtained, may prevent the sowing of any part of it in proper season. Nay, bad weather may set in and prevent the sowing after the land has been ploughed; still a favourable week may occur, and at the worst, at the latter end of the season the land may be ribbed with the small plough, in the manner I have described in (2185.), and which will move as much of the tender part of the soil on the surface as sufficiently to bury the seed, and the greater part of the former furrow will still remain in a firm state to support the wheat plant.

(2190.) The land being ploughed, it should be sown as quickly as possible; for which purpose the seed-wheat should be measured up in the sacks, or ready to be measured up in the corn-barn or granary, and the means of pickling it also ready when wanted. Wheat should be sown thick in spring, because there is no time for the plant to stool or tiller, that is, to throw out young shoots from the roots, as in the case of autumnal sown wheat. About 3 bushels per imperial acre will suffice for seed.

(2191.) Seed-wheat should be pickled, that is, subjected to a preparation in a certain kind of liquor, before it is sown, in order to ensure it against the attack of a certain disease in the ensuing summer, called smut, which renders the crop comparatively worthless. Some farmers affect to laugh at this precaution, as originating in a nonsensical faith in an imaginary specific; but the existence of smut, and its baneful effects upon

the wheat-crop, are no imaginary inventions, and when experience has proved, in numberless instances, that the application of a steep has the effect of warding off the evils of smut, the little trouble which pickling imposes may surely be undertaken, rather than the whole crop be put in jeopardy. Why pickling now should have the effect of preventing the smut at a future period, is a different question; and it is, perhaps, because this question has not hitherto been satisfactorily answered, that pickling is thought lightly of by some farmers, rather than because any valid objection can be urged against its practice. Indeed there cannot, for the palpable fact stands obvious to conviction, that one field sown with pickled wheat, and managed in the usual way, will escape the smut, while an adjoining one, managed in exactly a similar manner, but sown with plain wheat, will be almost destroyed with the disease. I have seen this identical case tried by two neighbouring farmers, the Messrs Fenton, late tenants of Nevay and Eassie, in Forfarshire. It is true, that on some farms wheat sown in a plain state, escapes the disease, as I have heard Mr Oliver, Lochend, near Edinburgh, state is the case with his farm; and it is also true that pickling does not entirely prevent the recurrence of the disease on other farms; but such cases are exceptions to the rule, which is, if wheat is not pickled it may be smutted; at least no one can aver beforehand that it shall not be so; and while uncertainty exists in the recurrence of a serious disease, the safer practice is to bestow the trouble of pickling, the expense being very trifling, rather than incur the risk of disease. It is now a well ascertained fact, that inoculation will not insure immunity from small-pox, yet it will certainly modify the attack when it occurs, and so it is with the case of pickling wheat; and as long as means are used to ward off small-pox, so long also, from analogy, ought wheat to be pickled.

(2192.) Wheat is pickled in this way. For some days, say 2 or 3 weeks, let one of the tubs referred to in (1449.) be placed to receive a quantity of chamber ley, and whenever ammonia is felt to be disengaging itself freely from the ley, it is ready for use. It is better that the effluvium be so strong as to smart the eyes, and water added to dilute the liquor, than that the ley be used fresh. This tub should be removed to the straw-barn, as also the wheat to be pickled, and part of the floor swept clean, to be ready for the reception of the wheat. Let 2 baskets be provided capable of holding easily about a bushel of wheat each, having handles raised upright on their rims. Pour the wheat into the baskets from the sacks, and dip each basketful of wheat into the tub of ley as far down as completely to cover the wheat, the upright handles of the baskets preventing the hands of the operator