not the case of broadcast by hand, yet there are objections against sowing corn in rows, which all drill-machines do; but could they be made to deposite seed at a uniform depth, and at the same time disperse it broadcast, the objection would be disposed of. The objection to all crops placed in rows is, that the air having free access along the rows, while it encourages the growth of the cultivated, so also it does of wild plants, and to destroy the latter certain implements are used to stir the ground, while the former are, of course, allowed to grow; but as in their progressive growth the plants throw out innumerable root-fibres in every direction in search of food, the fibres which occupy the open space between the rows are destroyed in common with the weeds, and though no estimate can be formed of the amount of injury which plants sustain in the destruction of their root fibres, yet it is consonant to reason, that these fibres must be essential to the welfare of the plant, otherwise they would not be sent forth. It would therefore be worth while to ascertain by experiment, the comparative results derived from depositing seed broadcast at a uniform depth with ordinary broadcast, and with rows. (2393.) I have amused myself at times in calculating the quantity of seeds of different grains sown in an acre, and on comparing the amount of crop actually received with what ought to have been their produce, and the deficiency which the results bear out appears incredible. Thus, Hunter's wheat gives 84 grains to 1 drachm weight; and taking it at 65 lb. per bushel, the number of grains in a bushel is 698,870, and giving 3 bushels per acre for seed, there will be sown on an imperial acre 2,095,510 grains, or 48 grains in the square foot. Now, I have counted ears of wheat to contain as high as 61, and as low as 24 grains each, the average thus being 44 grains; and allowing no more than 1 ear of produce from each grain sown, and allowing nothing for the tillering of the crop, the produce ought to be 44 fold; but the largest produce of wheat in the Carse of Gowrie is 52 bushels per imperial acre, or only 17 fold for the seed sown, what then becomes of the other 27 fold? Again, 80 grains of Chevalier barley, at 69 lb. per bushel, weighs 1 drachm, or affords 604,160 grains to the bushel, and, at 3 bushels to the acre, 1,812,480 grains per acre, or 41 grains to the square foot. Now barley yields from 32 to 21 grains in the ear, the average being 28, and allowing 1 ear from each grain sown, the produce should be 28 fold, but 60 bushels per acre is the best crop, or 20 fold of the seed, what then becomes of the 8 fold which is awanting? Potato oats give 134 grains to 1 drachm, at 47 lb. per bushel, or 806,144 grains to the bushel, and at 6 bushels an acre for seed, 4,836,864 grains per acre, or 111 grains per square foot. Now, potato oats differ in the yield of grains in the ear from 182 to 20, the average being 64, or 64 fold, allowing 1 ear from each grain sown, without tillering. Now 72 bushels is a good crop per acre, or 12 fold of the seed, what then becomes of the 52 fold awanting? These are incredible discrepancies, and how can they be accounted for? Can the attacks of insects and vermin, or the effects of soil and weather account for the loss? The subject is worth investigation, and were the result of investigation the discovery of means to protect the seed while it is in the ground, the produce would either be greatly increased, or the quantity of seed to be sown would require to be much lessened.* Once more. * See some speculations of mine on this subject in vol. iv. p. 535 of Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 56. OF TURNING DUNGHILLS AND COMPOSTS. "The compost pile examine now and turn, Into one mass of vegetable mould, With an unsparing hand throw in more lime. GRAHAM. (2394.) The ordinary mode of treating dunghills of farm-yard manure is very simple, the principle upon which it is founded is quite consonant to reason,—and the results of the application of the manure so treated is also quite satisfactory. The treatment is, to spread every kind of straw used in litter, and every kind of dung derived from the various sorts of animals domiciled in the steading uniformly in layers, as it is supplied, over the area of the respective courts; to take this compound of straw and dung out of the courts at a proper period, and form it into a heap in the field where the manure derived from it shall be needed, with as much care as to mix the different ingredients of the heap together as they were in the courts, and to prevent the fermentation of the whole until the manure is used; and to turn this heap over in such a way, and at such a time, as the manure it contains shall be ready to be applied to the soil when wanted. The principle of this treatment is the simple one of commixing the various ingredients of straw and dung so intimately together, first in the courts, then in the dung-heap, when led out, and lastly in the same dung-heap when turned over to be duly fermented, as that the fermented manure shall be as uniform a compound as the nature of the materials of which it is composed will admit. And the result is, when the manure so treated is applied to the soil, it is found to be the most valuable of any known manure for every purpose of the farm. You have already been told how the courts should be littered, and been shewn the advantages of attending to this simple yet important part of rural management in (2023.) and (2024.). You have also seen how those courts are emptied of their contents, and the proper time when they should be so emptied, in (2025.) and (2026.) And you have witnessed how their contents are disposed of in heaps in the fields in which they shall be required, (2028.), and the reasons why they are for in the manner recommended, (2029.). My present purpose is to inform you how these heaps should be turned in order to bring them into the degree of fermentation best suited for making them into good manure; and the mode of actually applying that manure will be shewn to you when we come to consider the culture of the potato and turnip crops. (2395.) Potatoes are the first crop which require a large quantity of farm dung. It is the practice of some farmers to drive the dung for potatoes direct out of the court, in its compressed state, and before it has been fermented at all. On strong soils, naturally unsuited to the growth of this plant, by reason of their heavy and tenacious character, long dung may be successfully used, because it assists to relieve the pressure of the soil upon the young plant. Indeed, on such soil, I have seen a drill of potatoes manured with dry twisted straw-ropes obtained from the coverings of the stacks in the stack-yard, and which was so manured for the purpose of ascertaining the difference, if any, betwixt it and the best made dung, produce as good potatoes as the dung. In like manner, potatoes may be raised well on soils of that character with horse-dung which has reached that state of worthlessness called fire-fanged. In all other sorts of soils the use of long-dung incurs imminent risk of a deficiency of crop, and therefore dung should generally be fermented for potatoes. Dung, when laid up in an uncompressed state in the court, as noticed in (2031.), becomes sufficiently fermented for potatoes, and may be driven out at once without farther preparation. There is one objection to the use of unfermented dung for potatoes, which seems to me insuperable, and it is, that where grains of every kind find their way among the litter of courts, and it is impossible to have the straw thrashed by the mill absolutely clean, or the seeds of weeds that may have been sifted out of the corn when cleaned, thrown upon the litter in the courts, though they ought to have been thrown away elsewhere; so long as these grains and seeds possess all their vitality, and that will escape destruction in unfermented dung, they will spring up amongst the potatoes, not in the intervals between the drills, where they might be removed by the horsehoes in the process of cleaning the land, but actually amongst the potato-plants, having vegetated and grown along with them, and deriving as much nourishment from the dung as the potatoes themselves. I have frequently seen such an intermixture with potato-plants at various places, and very dirty and slovenly farming it makes. Having a piece of ground trenched from an old plantation, and being comparatively pretty clean, I was desirous of trying potatoes upon it for the first crop, and having no dung ready prepared for this extra space of ground, what was required was taken out of the court in which the corn-barn was situated, and the result was as I have just described. No doubt, the weeds thus sprung up amongst the potatoes can be removed by the field-workers with the draw-hoe, when they are cleaning the crop, but the labour of removing large plants from that position, and especially when forced in growth by powerful manure, is considerable, and the weeding cannot be accomplished but by removing a considerable portion of the useful soil around the young potato plant. It is clear that it is much better farming to have no plants in this position to take away, than to have to remove them. (2396.) On commencing the turning of a dunghill, it should be considered from which end it will be most convenient to take the dung and lay it on the land. On the supposition that the dunghill occupies the position explained in (2022.), the end from which the dung will be carted away will be the head-ridge. After determining this point, the next subject for consideration is, whether the dunghill will be once or twice turned before it is applied, and this point is determined by the crop for which the dunghill is preparing,—if for potatoes, only one turning is requisite, and two for turnips. As the first dunghill is intended for potatoes, it receives one turning, and it should be begun to be turned at the end farthest from the head-ridge. The unturned dung-heap slopes at both ends, as observed in (2028.), but the turned dunghill should be made of the same height throughout. To attain this end, the space occupied by the workers at the commencement, between the turned dung and the dung-heap, should be wider than at the middle of the heap, and the dung should be thrown to a greater height than the side from which it is taken. The usual width marked off on the dung-heap is 3 feet, which affords sufficient room for people to work in; but the first few spaces upon which the first divisions of the heap are laid, should be held narrower than 3 feet, until the desired height of the turned dunghill is attained at the end. The effect of this arrangement is, as the turning approaches the middle of the dung-heap, where it is of the greatest height, the space upon which the dung is turned upon will be more than 3 feet in width, and the additional width will be required near and at the middle, that the extra height of the dung-heap there may be reduced to the level of the end. After the middle has been passed, the spaces turned upon should be gradually lessened in width towards the end at which the turning is finished, where, as at the commencement, the turned dung will have to be thrown to a greater height than the dung-heap, to attain the medium height of the finished dunghill. There is much more of nice management in following these particulars of turning a dunghill than at first sight may appear necessary, because the turned dunghill will not ferment equally throughout if it is of different heights. The greatest heat will be at the deepest part, where the dung will become comparatively short and compact, whilst at the shallowest parts it will continue crude and unprepared; and these different states of manure have very different effects on the soil. In ordinary practice, miscalculations are always made as to the uniform height of dunghills, for they are lower at the ends than in the middle; and if an endeavour is afterwards made to equalize the height, it is done by throwing the high dung of the middle towards the ends, and the effect of this expedient is, that no union takes place between the dung which was turned over in the regular way with what is afterwards thrown upon it; they ever after remain in different states, and rise differently to the graip when removed into the cart; and the middle part, besides, becomes trampled down and harder than the ends. (2397.) Laying these down as the rules by which dunghills should be turned, the mechanical part of the operation is done in the following manner:-The people required to do this work are a man and a few field-workers, according to the size of the dunghills; and of this latter class, women are by far the best hands at turning a dunghill, because, each taking a smaller quantity of dung at a time upon a smaller graip than fig. 257, the dung is much more intimately mixed together than when men are occupied at this work, for they take large graipfuls, and merely lift them from one side of the trench they are working in to the other, without shaking each graipful loose, or scattering it to pieces. Turning dung is not a cleanly work for women, their petticoats being apt to be soiled in the trench by the dung on both sides; but there is a plan which the Berwickshire women adopt of keeping the bottom of their dress clean, which is to tie the bottom of the petticoat with the garters just below the knee, as long as they are at work. The man's duty is to cut the dung-heap into divisions of 3 feet wide across its breadth with the dung-spade, fig. 364, in the manner described in (2030.). When the edge of the dung-spade becomes dull, it is sharpened with a scythe-stone. The drier portions of the dung are put into the interior of the dunghill, and, when different sorts of dung are met with, they are intermingled in small graipfuls as intimately as possible. Each division of the dung-heap is cut down and turned over to the ground before another one is entered on, and, when the ground is reached, the scattered straws, and earth that has been damped by any exudation from the dung-heap, are shovelled up either with the broad-mouthed shovel, fig. 149, or the frying-pan shovel, fig. 176, and thrown into the interior. When straw-ropes are met with, they should be cut into small |