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2369. Fig. 212, is an edge-view of the two pressing wheels detached from the carriage, in which a a is the axle, b b are the two pressing-wheels as they appear edgeways, their weight being about 2 cwt. Fig. 212.

ACTION OF THE EDGE OF THE PRESSING-WHEELS.

each. The pressing-wheels are held at the required distance by the square collars ccc: d d represents a transverse section of the ground undergoing the pressing process: the shaded part of the section exhibits the state of a soft loose soil when pressed by the roller; and the dotted lines ef, ef, that of the newly ploughed lea undergoing the operation of consolidation.

2370. As explained above, and with reference again to fig. 211, the pressingwheels are to be understood as running always upon the last turned-up furrows but one; while the carriage-wheel e runs always upon the solid land, where the horse also walks, the shafts being placed at that side. But the presser is now being more advantageously used as to time, in the consolidation of soft soils by being constructed with four, six, or more pressing-wheels; and in this form the carriagewheel is not required. In using the presser of this construction, the field must be ploughed for the seed-furrow all over, either entirely or in part, before the pressing is begun; and the field is regularly gone over by the presser, which, from its now increased weight, will require two horses. In this form, with six pressingwheels, and with two horses, the machine will press-roll from 8 to 9 acres in a day. The entire weight of the six wheel rollers amounts to about 12 or 13 cwt. The price of the two-wheeled presser is about £6,

10s. and for each additional wheel, with its mounting, £1, 12s.

2371. The presser is used in this manner for pressing the soil after lea. It is most economically used in conjunction with two ploughs, by following the last one, and moving the pressing-wheels upon the two furrow-slices they had immediately laid over. It not only compresses the slices into less bulk, but indents a groove on each of them, which receives the seed when it is sown. With 1 presser, 2 acres of ground can only thus be compressed in the course of a day, and, where a considerable extent of spring wheat may be sown, this rate of compression would be too slow. Either the number of pressers should be increased, or a considerable extent of land pressed before it is sown; as it would be tiresome work to sow only two acres a-day of a large field, which might require a fortnight of 2 ploughs to plough. As the weather in spring is precarious, and the season for sowing spring wheat limited, the most convenient plan for most farmers would be to have 2 pressers in operation, and sow the ground compressed every two days-that is, 8 acres-which would be a large enough sowing of spring wheat in one day upon a farm that worked 5 pairs of horses; or, on farms employing a smaller number of horses, the better plan would be to have one of the larger pressers which covers more ground, and is worked by a pair of horses. The former plan, as regards time, may be followed with perfect safety to the wheat crop, as a double tine along of the harrows is quite sufficient to cover pressed spring wheat; and it should receive no more, unless perhaps a single tine again along, in case the surface is not yet sufficiently fine; but cross-harrowing would discompose the seed that had fallen in rows into the grooves made by the pressers. Another plan is to plough and press the lea early in winter, when it would consolidate still more, and then sow an entire field with wheat in spring, when the weather is favourable; and should it prove not so, the ground would be ready for oats. This last plan might be followed on light soils, which are in a rich enough condition for spring wheat or the lea might be ploughed in winter and not pressed until spring before being sown.

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2372. This same instrument may be beneficially employed in compressing light turnip-land when ploughing into ridges, to render it more fit for spring wheat; and in using it for this purpose it might be employed in the same manner as on lea.

2373. But the presser may be employed on even strong lea, and the crop of wheat consequent thereon increased to a sensible degree, as the following case will testify:"A very striking instance of the utility of this machine," says Mr Hugh Watson, Keillor, Forfarshire," was exhibited on a field belonging to my friend Captain Barclay Allardyce of Ury, who last season (1832) broke up a piece of grass land near his mansion-house, supposed to have lain out about 100 years. It was a strong soil, and required 4 horses to work the plough, and it was followed by the presser, leaving the work in such a finished state that, although Captain Barclay's intention was to sow the field with oats, after the preparation of a winter's exposure, he was induced to try a crop of wheat, and succeeded beyond his expectation, having reaped 50 bushels per imperial acre; while the probability is, that, if the field had been sown in spring with oats, they would all have rotted. I have used the presser," continues Mr Watson, "for two seasons, and can with confidence recommend it on all light soils with every sort of corn crop."* It would thus appear that the use of the presser is almost of general application, and that the ground may be ploughed a considerable time before it is sown, which renders it of use on a winter furrow. Farmers, both in Forfar and Fife shires, I am aware, have used this instrument for several years, and, from what I can learn, with success.

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extends in fibres around near the surface. The consolidation which the ground receives, as far as the tines of the harrows reach, is sufficient for the oat; but not so for the wheat — as, besides the fibrous roots which it also pushes around near the surface, it sends a strong tap and other roots downwards, which, on finding no sufficient hold in the void spaces so numerous under the furrow-slices of ploughed lea, but where it is necessary to afford requisite anchorage to the plant, they are constrained to descend still farther, until they reach the undisturbed subsoil under the line of the plough draught, where they no doubt find sufficient stability, but insufficient support. The range of the roots of the wheat and the oat plants are as different as that of those of the oak and the Scots fir. Let the soil, however, be compressed by the presser, and the wheat plant then finds the requisite security for its roots; and the decomposed vegetable matter of the lea supports it, as well as it would the oat plant in the same place. Wheat is grown after lea in England without pressing; but I suspect the practice is chiefly confined to good clay land; and we know, besides, that the furrow which the English ploughman gives to the lea is shallow and flat, so that the roots of the plant find no difficulty in pushing through it, and establishing themselves in the subsoil, which is comparatively much nearer the air and manure of the soil than in Scotch lea-ploughing. I suspect also that, were wheat sown after rye-grass lea, it would no more succeed in England than in Scotland, where there is no other species of grass to precede it, there being no pure clover leas or old pasture to prepare for wheat.

2375. With regard to the varieties of wheat which ought to be sown in spring, I cannot advise with confidence. The unintelligible classification of wheat by botanists, into beardless in winter, and bearded in spring, in as far as it affects agriculture, is apt to mislead the farmer; and were he so far to rely on the opinions of botanists as to try these two distinctions of wheat in the season said to be suitable to each, he would certainly be disappointed, and the results would probably be

Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. iv. 545.

the very opposite anticipated. For this reason I quite agree with Mr Lawson in what he has said on the subject. "Botanists," he states, "generally divide the common beardless and bearded wheats into two distinct species, terming the former Triticum hibernum, or winter wheat, and the latter Triticum æstivum, or summer wheat. But the propriety of the distinction may well be questioned, more particularly as the chief distinguishing character between them consists in the varieties of the former being beardless, or nearly so, while the awns of the latter are generally 2, 3, or more inches in length; and it being an established fact, that the awns or beards in grasses form by no means a permanent specific distinction, and that in many cases they do not even constitute a variety, so much does their presence or absence depend upon the effects of climate, culture, soil, &c. But the principal objection to the names commonly used is, that they make no proper distinction between the two great classes-winter and spring wheats. For instance, under Triticum hibernum are included several of the earlier, and, without doubt, the best sorts of spring wheat; and under Triticum æstivum are included several bearded wheats equally hardy, and requiring as long time to arrive at maturity as our common winter sorts."* Colonel Le Couteur falls into the same error when treating of the classification of wheat, by dividing all wheats into the two unmeaning distinctions of "beardless or winter wheats" and "bearded or spring wheats," as I have formerly remarked in (1844.) +

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2376. Although the subject is thus rendered, by botanists and writers on the cultivated varieties of wheat, sufficiently puzzling to the farmer, yet some considerations may direct you in the choice of spring wheat. I may premise that you cannot make a mistake in regard to a winter wheat; for, however early may be the habit of the variety sown, the very circumstance of its having been sown in autumn, when sufficient time is not given to the plant to reach maturity before winter, will convert it for that season into a winter variety. The wheat plant is a true annual,

* Lawson's Agriculturist's Manual, p. 1-2.

but when sown late, and the progress of its growth is retarded by a depression of temperature, it is converted for the time into a biennial. It is therefore highly probable, that, as the nature of wheat is to bring its seed to maturity in the course of one season, any variety sown in time in spring would mature its seed in the course of the ensuing summer or autumn. I believe this to be a fact; nevertheless, circumstances may occur to modify the fact in this climate. Under the most favourable circumstances, the wheat plant requires a considerable time to mature its seed; and a variety that has long been cultivated in winter, on being sown in spring in the same latitude will not mature its seed that season, should the temperature fall much below the average, or should it be cultivated on very inferior soil to what it had been accustomed; so that, in practice, it is not safe at least in so precarious a climate as that of Scotland-to sow every variety of wheat in spring. Wheat from a warm to a cold climate, will prove earlier in the latter than the native varieties, and, in so far, is better suited for sowing in spring; and if you can ascertain, besides, that the same variety is an early one in the warm latitude-bringing its seed to maturity in a short period, perhaps not exceeding 4 months-then you may safely sow it as a spring wheat, whether it be a red or white coloured- a bearded or a beardless variety.

2377. In my own experience of springwheat, the old Lammas red, and another old variety, which I have not heard of for many years, the Cobham red, were considered excellent varieties of spring wheat. Of the Lammas red, I have seen a field of 35 acres sown on the 8th March, and cut, an excellent crop, on 26th August, in that memorable year for all kinds of good crops, 1815. The variety exists at the present day, and is still, I believe, a favourite with many farmers, and deservedly so.

2378. A late variety of spring wheat was introduced into culture a few years since, under the name of fern wheat, and is now termed April wheat, because it may be sown as late as April, and yet be cut

+ Le Couteur On Wheat, p. 78-9.

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The April wheat very much resembles a wheat grown in North America, under the name of the Italian, from whence it probably found its way to this country.

2379. It is awned, the spike very long, 6 inches, and is red coloured. The grain is small, elongated, with the median line well marked, opaque, somewhat flinty, and lively red colour. The produce in East Lothian has frequently been 5 quarters per imperial acre, and the weight from 60 lb. to 64 lb. per bushel. It is well liked by the bakers, and its price rules about the same as other sorts of red wheat of the same weight. The straw is tall, and softer than that of the winter wheat. It requires to be carefully pickled before being sown, being much given to smut; and it should not be allowed to stand until too ripe, as it is liable to shake out of the chaff. Whether it will pay better than barley, in ordinary years, remains to be seen; but, as it is gaining in repute, we may conclude that it does so in many cases.*

ON THE DRILLING UP OF LAND.

2380. While the ploughing and sowing of the turnip land with spring wheat may be progressing in the early spring months, whenever the weather is favourable for the operation, preparation should be making for others of the earliest spring crops, the earliest of which may be regarded the bean and the pea. Beans and pease are usually cultivated on strong land, having a considerable tenacity by means of the clay it contains; and as this

sort of land is not in a state to be worked in spring, but only when the weather is dry, unless it has been thoroughly drained, or is incumbent on a porous subsoil, it is not in every season that the bean and the pea can be cultivated. Beans and pease may also be cultivated in lighter and naturally dry soils, provided they are well manured. Whatever may be the state and quality of the soil, one mode of cultivating the bean and the pea is upon drills, in the same manner as the potato and the turnip; and it is therefore requisite that you understand the method of making up the land into drills, before proceeding to the details of the cultivation of the bean or the pea in that particular manner.

2381. Drilling.-Drilling is a form of ploughing very different from the ordinary, but not unlike in appearance to that mode of ploughing stubble in some parts of the country, named rib-ploughing, fig. 30, and which I noticed only to condemn. The principal reason for my condemnation was, that while it professed to turn up the soil to the action of the atmosphere, it left untouched by the plough and buried more than the half of it, thus in a great measure frustrating its avowed object. In so far as the drilling is concerned, it also leaves a large proportion of the soil between one side of the drill and the other quite untouched by the plough; but then the part untouched now had been ploughed and cleaned previous to being drilled up, otherwise it could not well be subjected to that operation; so that drilling affects only the operations directly in connexion with the manuring of the soil and the sowing of the seed. On this account drills ought not to be formed on land in a hard state, as the object of making them at all is to afford a sufficient quantity of loose soil to cover the manure deposited in them, and the roots of plants sufficient freedom to roam in search of that manure; and also to afford an opportunity, notwithstanding the presence of a crop, to clear the land of weeds, by stirring it occasionally with the proper implements. There is no way of effecting all these objects so effectually as by drilling. Accordingly, all crops intended to meliorate and clean the ground are cultivated in drills, and these

* Lawson's Agriculturist's Manual, p. 18.

are beans, potatoes, turnips, mangold- may be, whether completely flat or exhiwurzel, &c.

2382. On entering upon the subject of drilling, the remarks shall be made without reference to the special case of sowing beans, though that has given rise to the subject at present, but rather in reference to the ordinary operations which provide and render the soil in the best state for being elevated into drills. The specialities connected with drilling will be stated when we come shortly to treat of the culture of the bean. After the land has been much ploughed and harrowed, and rolled, to render it friable, it becomes flat, whatever may have been the form of ridge in which it had before been ploughed; and it is in the best state for being ploughed into drills when flat. Yet heavy land which is constantly retained in ridges of a rounded form, such as twice-gathered-up, fig. 26, will exhibit the ridged form even after it has been well pulverised by ploughings, harrowings, and rollings; it will still appear as if gathered up from the flat, fig. 20, and had been harrowed and rolled fine on the surface. Light soil with the same work will appear quite flat, and of a uniform surface throughout, though not with that levelness which implies that every portion of its surface was in the same plane.

2383. This distinction in the appearance of ground that has been ridged and not ridged, should be kept in view, as it will, in a great measure, determine the width of space that should be left between the drills. This distinction is entirely occasioned by the different form in which the different sorts of soils had been previously ploughed. Strong soil is always kept round by repeated gatherings up, fig. 20, or gatherings up based on casting with gore-furrows, fig. 23, which imprint even upon a wrought surface a flatness across the top of the ridge, but with an evident mark along the open furrows; whereas the lighter soils are usually only once gathered up, fig. 20, cast together without gore-furrows, fig. 22, or ploughed twoout-and-two-in, fig. 25, which, after being wrought down, give a flatness across the ridges with a slight waving indentation in the open furrows.

biting a slight indication of rounded ridges, the drills are made of the same form, and in various ways. They are made by one landing of the plough, when they are said. to be single, or they are made with a bout of the plough, when they are called double; and both single and double drills are made either towards or from the feering. The ultimate form of the two different modes are apparently the same, but that which makes them from the feering is the truest drill, as I shall show.

2385. In beginning to make drills, let us take one of the simplest cases that present themselves, namely, a field having a straight side at its farthest end, and having the forms of ridges still visible; and as it is requisite in strong land to preserve a form of surface which will keep it as dry as possible, the drills should be so made upon the ridges as to be accommodated between the open furrows. If the ridges are 15 feet in width, 6 drills of 30 inches apart will fill up the space between the open furrows; and if 18 feet wide, 8 drills of 27 inches will answer the same end.

When the ground is flat, the width of the drills may be adapted according to will. I have seen it stated in cases of drilling land for turnips in England, that 18 inches was a good distance to be preserved between drills; but what good can be obtained by adopting a space too narrow for the free operation of the implements required to keep the ground clean, I cannot imagine.

2386. Suppose, then, that the ridges present a form of 15 feet in width on strong land, the drills should be made 30 inches wide, and they are made in this way. Begin at the end of the field farthest from the gate, and where the fence runs in a straight line; and set up 3 feering poles, fig. 18, in a straight line upon the highest furrow-brow of the second ridge from the fence, and 15 inches from the middle of its open furrow. Split out the feering along the line of the poles, turning over the furrow-slices first to one hand and then to the other, like the furrowslices m and n, along the feering kl, fig. 19. The reason that the first feering is made on the furrow-brow is, that when 2384. In whichever state the surface the drills are afterwards split to cover the

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