2305. The land should only receive one furrow-the seed-furrow, for spring wheat; and if it were ploughed oftener after a manured green crop, and in spring, when it had become tender by the winter frost, it would want that firmness so essential to the growth of wheat. The mode of ploughing this seed-furrow depends upon circumstances. If the land presents a visible form of ridge, and soon becomes wet, it should be gathered up, fig. 20, and then it will have the appearance of being twice gathered up, as in fig. 26. If it is flat, and the subsoil somewhat moist, gathering up from the flat will answer best, as in fig. 20. If the soil has a dry subsoil, though of itself a pretty strong clay, it may be cast fig. 22 with gorefurrows, (756.) And should it be fine loam, resting on an open bottom, the ridges may be cast together without gore-furrows, as in fig. 22. It is probable that a whole field may not be obtained at once to plough up in either of these ways, and such a case 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 sown by degrees; whereas to wait until a whole field can be sown at once, may prevent the sowing of spring wheat altogether in the proper season. Bad weather may set in, prevent the sowing, and consolidate the land too much after it had been ploughed; still a favourable week may occur, and, even at the latter end of the season, the land may be ribbed with the small plough, in the manner to be afterwards described, which will move as much of the tender part of the soil on the surface as sufficiently to bury the seed.

2306. The land, having been ploughed, should be sown as quickly as possible; for which purpose the seed-wheat should have been measured up in the sacks, or ready to be measured up in the corn-barn or granary, and the means of pickling it provided for. Wheat should be sown thick in spring, as there is no time for the plant to stool or tiller-that is, to throw up young shoots from the roots, as in the case of autumnal sown wheat. About 3 bushels per imperial acre will suffice for seed for spring wheat, which does not

tiller, but less would suffice for winter wheat. A controversy about thick and thin sowing is carrying on at present, to which we shall direct our attention at a convenient time.

2307. Seed-wheat should be pickledthat is, subjected to preparation in a certain kind of liquor-before it is sown, in order to insure it against the attack of a fungal disease in the ensuing summer, called smut, which renders the crop comparatively worthless. Some farmers affect to despise this precaution, as originating in an unfounded reliance on an imaginary specific; but the existence of smut, and its baneful effect upon the wheat-crop, are no imaginary evils; and when experience has proved, in numberless instances, that steeped grain prevents the appearance of this serious disease, the small trouble which pickling imposes may surely be undertaken, rather than place the entire crop in jeopardy. Why pickling the seed should have the effect of preventing the smut in the crop, is a question more easily asked than answered; and it is, perhaps, because it has never received a satisfactory answer, that pickling is disregarded by some farmers. No valid objection can be stated against the practice, for the palpable fact stands obvious to conviction, that one field sown with pickled wheat, and otherwise managed in the usual way, will escape the smut; while the adjoining one, managed in exactly a similar manner, but sown with wheat in its ordinary state, will be almost destroyed with the disease. I have seen such a case tested 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 its usual state escapes the disease, which I have heard the late Mr Oliver, Lochend, near Edinburgh, state was the case on his farm; and it is also true that pickling does not entirely prevent the occurrence of the disease on other farms; but such cases do not prove that every farm must also be free of the smut: indeed no one, beforehand, can aver that any farm shall be so; and while so much uncertainty exists, the safer practice is to pickle the seed, the expense being a mere trifle. It is now an ascertained fact, that vaccination will not insure immunity from smallpox, yet it certainly very much modifies

is felt disengaging itself from the ley, it is ready for use. It is better that the ammonia be as strong as to smart the eyes, and water be added to dilute it, than that the ley be used fresh. This tub should be removed to the straw-barn, as also the wheat in sacks to be pickled, and part of the floor swept clean, to be ready for the reception of the wheat. Let two baskets, b and d, be provided, capable of holding easily about half a bushel of wheat each, having handles standing upright above the rims. Pour the wheat into the basket b from the sack a, and dip the basketful of wheat into the tub of ley c as far down as completely to cover the wheat, the upright handles of the baskets preventing the hands of the operator being immersed in the ley. After remaining in the liquid for a few seconds, lift up the basket, let the surplus liquid run out of it, and then place it upon the drainer e, on the empty tub f, to drip still more liquid, till the empty basket is filled with wheat and dipped in the tub. Now empty the dripped basket d of its wheat on the floor; and as every basketful is emptied, let a person spread, by riddling through a wire wheat-riddle, fig. 157, a little slaked caustic lime upon the wheat. Thus all the wheat wanted at the time is pickled and emptied on the floor, when the pickled and limed heap is turned over and over again, till the whole mass appears uniform.

2309. The mixing by turning is most surely managed in this way.-Let two men be each provided with a squaremouthed shovel, fig. 83, and let them turn over the heap, one bearing the helve of his shovel in the right hand, and the other with his left-both making their shovels meet in their edges upon the floor, under one end of the heap of wheat, and, on lifting each shovel-full of wheat, turn them over behind them, proceeding by shovelfuls, to the other end of the heap. Let them return in a similar manner in the opposite direction, and as often, until the heap of wheat is completely mixed and dried with the lime. The pickled wheat is then sacked up, and carried to the field in carts.

2310. Other substances beside chamber ley are used for pickling wheat, such as brine of salt, sufficiently strong to float an egg; solution of blue vitriol-all good enough, I dare say; but when so simple, efficient, and easily obtained an article as ley can be had, it appears to me unnecessary to employ anything else. It is powerful, and can destroy vegetable life in the course of a few hours, and, on this account, the wheat should be sown immediately after being pickled; and as this danger exists, no more should be pickled at one time than can immediately be sown. The use of the quick-lime seems merely to dry the ley quickly, so that the grains may be easily separated from one another in the act of sowing; though it may effect some chemical change serviceable to the purpose for which it is employed.

2311. Sowing by hand.-There is some art in setting down sacks of seed-corn on the field. It should be ascertained how many ridges of the field to be sown are contained in an acre-a fact which I have recommended to the attention of the student in (571,) so that the sacks may be set down between so many ridges, as each sack or row of sacks shall contain seed to sow the ground between them at the specified quantity of seed to the acre. This instruction should be given to the ploughman before he proceeds to the field with the sacks, otherwise he may set them down either too close or too wide. One row of sacks is sufficient, when the ridges are

just long enough for the sower to carry as much seed as will bring him back again to the sack, and the sacks should be set down in the middle of the ridge; when the ridges are short, the sacks may be set down on a headridge; and when of such a length as the sower cannot return to the sack by a considerable distance, two sacks should be set down on the same ridge, dividing the length of the ridge equally between them. The setting down of the sacks should be begun from the side at which the sowing commences, and this again depends on the form of the surface of the field.

2312. If the surface is level, it matters not which side of the field is chosen for commencing operations; but if inclined, then that side which lies to the left while looking down, or to the right on looking up the inclination, should begin the sowing. The reason for this preference is, that the first stroke of the harrows along the ridge is most difficult for the horses to draw; and it is easiest for them to execute the first stroke downhill. This first action of the harrows is called breaking-in the land. The sacks are always placed on the furrowbrow of a ridge, (738,) that the hollowness of the open-furrow beside it may give advantage to the person who carries the seed, to take it out more quickly and easily as it sinks in the sack.

2313. The carrier of the seed is a fieldworker, and the instant the first sack of seed is set down, she proceeds to untie and roll down its mouth, and fill the rusky fig. 201, with seed, and carries the first quantity to the sower, who should be ready sheeted awaiting her arrival on the headridge at the side of the field. Her endeavour should be to supply him with such a quantity at a time as will bring him in a line with the sack when he wants more; and as the sacks are placed about halfway down the ridges when only one sack is wanted, this may easily be arranged; but when there are two rows of sacks, she must go from sack to sack on the same ridge, and endeavour to make the most convenient arrangement for the sower, it being her special duty to attend to his wants, and not his to attend to her convenience. This regular plan will give her the least trouble, and supply the sower always with the requisite quantities of

seed-for, otherwise, nothing can be more annoying to a sower than to have his sheet served too full at one time, and with a stinted quantity at another; and it loses much time to him to be obliged to wait the arrival of the seed-carrier, whereas she should be awaiting his arrival. If the sacks of seed are conveniently placed, with one on a ridge, one active seed-carrier will serve two sowers; but when two sacks are required for a ridge, and more than one sower, two carriers will be required. Better that the carriers have little to do than that the sowers should lose time, which they assuredly will incur when the carriers have too much to do.

Fig. 201.

THE SEED-CORN RUSKY.

2314. The rusky, or seed-basket, fig. 201, is usually made of twisted straw in rows above each other, fastened together by means of withes of willow. It is provided with a couple of handles sufficient to admit the points of the fingers, and also a rim round the bottom, of the same material, upon which to stand. In the Border counties it is carried on the head of the seedcarrier when full; in other parts in the arms, with the bottom rim supported by the haunch. It should be filled each time with just the quantity of seed, and no more, which the sower requires at one time. The mouth of the sack should always be kept rolled round upon itself, that the seed may be easily and quickly taken out, for little time is usually at the disposal of the carrier. The carrier should be careful not to spill the seed upon the ground on taking it out of the sack, otherwise a thick tuft of corn will unprofitably grow upon the spot.

2315. As one sack becomes empty, it should be taken by the carrier to the nearest sack, and as they accumulate, should be put into one, and thus carried forward out of the way of the harrows. It is too common to see the sacks allowed to lie upon the ground where they are emptied, and flung aside as the harrows come to them, and thus are not unfrequently torn.

2316. The sower is habited in a peculiar manner-he puts on a sowing-sheet, fig. 202. The most convenient form of Fig. 202.

years. The difficult point is to make the sowing-sheet fit the sower on the top of the left shoulder, where the greater part of the weight of the corn rests; and, in attempting this, the principal thing to be considered is, to make the strap, which goes over the shoulder, broad enough, and take the slope of the top of the shoulder from the neck downwards. The gatherings of the cloth on each side of the shoulder-top should be as neatly executed as in a shirt, and a couple of tapes should be drawn through a slot-hem, to be tied tight in front of the sheet across the breast. Fig. 202 shows very correctly the manner in which a well-made sheet should be put on and held.

THE METHOD OF PUTTING ON THE SOWING-
SHEET, AND OF HAND-SOWING.

one is that of the semi-spheroid, made of linen sheeting, having an opening large enough along one side of its mouth to allow the head and right arm of a man to pass through, and the portion passed under rests upon his left shoulder. On distending its mouth with both hands, and on receiving the seed into it, the superfluous portion of the sheet is wound tight over the left arm, and gathered under it into the left hand; by which it is firmly held, while the load of corn is thus securely supported by that part of the sheet which passes over the left shoulder across the back, and under the right arm. The right arm, which throws the seed, finds easy access to the corn from the open side of the mouth of the sheet, between the left hand and the breast of the sower. A square sheet, knotted together in three of its corners, and put on in a similar manner, is sometimes used as a sowing-sheet; but one formed and sewed of the proper shape, and kept for the purpose, is a much more convenient article. Linen sheeting makes an excellent material for a sowing-sheet, and, when washed at the end of the season, will last many

THE ENGLISH SOWING BASKET.

pended by girths, fastened to the two loops shown on the rim of the basket, by passing the girth from the left-hand loop over the left shoulder, behind the back to the other loop-or from one loop to the other, round the back of the neck; and the left hand holds the basket steady, by the wooden stud on the other side of the rim. Such an instrument, no doubt, answers the purpose of the sower, or it would not have been so long in use; but, for my part, I much prefer the comfortable feel of the linen sheet to the hard friction of the wicker basket.

2318. Both these utensils for sowing seed are intended for the use of one hand only, but some sowers throw the seed with both hands, and then the instrument must be made to suit the practice. Such a one

is a basket, or box made of thin deal, the nearest side curved to suit the front of the body. It is suspended by girths fastened to loops on the side next the sower, and passed round the back of the neck. A strap and buckle fastens it round the body; and the further side is suspended by straps slanting to the shoulders of the sower, and fastened to the strap buckled round behind his body. A more simple form of sowing-sheet for both hands is a linen semi-spheroidal bag, attached to a hoop of wood or of iron-rod, formed to fit the body, buckled round it, and suspended in front in the manner just described. Both bands are thus at liberty to cast the seed.

2319. In sowing with one hand, the sower walks on the third and fourth furrow-slices from the open-furrow, which he keeps on his right hand. Taking as much seed as he can grasp in his right hand, he stretches his arm out and a little back, with the clenched fingers looking forward, and the left foot making an advance of a moderate step. When the arm has attained its most backward position the seed is begun to be cast, with a quick and forcible thrust of the hand forward. At the first instant of the forward motion, the forefinger and thumb are a little relaxed, by which some of the seeds drop upon the furrow-brow and in the open-furrow; and while still further relaxing the fingers gradually, the back of the hand is so also turned upwards, until the arm becomes stretched before the sower, by which time the fingers are all thrown open, with the back of the spread hand uppermost. The motion of the arm being always in full swing, the grain, as it leaves the hand, and partaking of its momentum, receives such an impetus as to be projected forward in the form of a figure corresponding to the sweep made by the hand. The forward motion of the hand is accompanied by a coresponding forward advance of the right foot, which is planted on the ground the moment the hand casts forward the bulk of the seed. The action is attempted to be represented by fig. 202. The figure which the seed describes, on falling upon the ground, is like the area of one end of the longer axis of a very eccentric ellipse, having one angle resting on the open-furrow, and the other stretching 2 or 3 feet

beyond the crown of the ridge, the broadest part of the area being on the left hand of the sower where he walks. The moment the seed leaves it, the hand is brought back to the sowing-sheet, while the left foot is advanced simultaneously, and the hand, thence replenished, is stretched back for a fresh cast. Thus the right hand and right foot move regularly and simultaneously, while the left hand and left foot move also simultaneously, but alternately with the right.

2320. The seed ought to be cast equally over the ground. If the hand and feet do not move regularly, the ground will not be equally covered, but a strip left almost bare between the casts. When the brairdthat is, the young plants-come up, they will show themselves in stripes like the steps of a ladder; and hence this species of bad sowing is named in the country laddering, or happergawin. This error is most apt to be committed by a sower with a stiff elbow, who always casts the grain too high above the ground. The arm should always be thrown well back and stretched out, though, in continuing the action, it will become painful in the inner part of the elbow joint. If the hand is opened too soon, too much of the seed falls upon the furrow-brow, and the crown will receive less than its proportion. This fault young sowers are very apt to commit, from the apprehension that they may retain the seed too long in the hand. If the hand is brought too high in front, the seed is apt to be acted upon by the wind, and tossed in a different direction from that intended. High casting is a very common error with sowers, and is unsafe in practice in windy weather. When the wind becomes strong, the sower is sometimes obliged to walk on the adjoining ridge to the windward, to sow the one he wishes; and a sower who casts high will never make good work in such a case. In casting high, the hand is elevated above the ordinary level of the elbow, whereas it should always sweep below that line. The hand should be kept low, the arm stretched out, and the seed made to fly off in a curve in front, by a sharp turn up of the back of the hand, and a free opening of the fingers near the end of that action, the nearest parts of the seed falling within two paces of the sower. Seed, when so cast, will be little affected by even a strong wind. Some sowers take long steps