'file practice of _hoeing inay take place at almost any time in light and dry milk hut on strong and clay ones, in wrI/c1 the extremes of wet and dry are larly inimical to vegetation, the seasons for its exercise are often short and critical.
As vigorous plants, such n.s are produ ced by this system, require a longer pe riod for attaining maturity, the corn thus cultivated must be SOWT1 earlier than in the usual mode. The intervals are usu ally prepared for sowing again, by pla cing some well-rotted dung in the deep fiirrows made in the middle of them, and this dung must be covered by the earth before tlirown towards the rows of wheat. 'Fliis should be performed ininiediately after harvest, that, before the rows flre sowed, there inay be time for slightly stirring- the land. The intervals of the second year occupy the place taken up 15y the stubble of the preceding.
The banishment of the plough in Spring, to as great a degree as possible, has taken place, in consequence of this most useful and happy innovation. All peas and beans, barley and oats, not only may be put in on an autumnal ploughing, but actually are so in many parts of the country (especially in Suffolk,) the stich es in this ploughing being carefully thrown to the precise breadth, suited to the intention of the farmer, whether to use only one movement of the drill, or what is usually denominated a bout of it ; on which subject opinions differ. By the winter frosts a friability is given to the surface of the soil, so great, 'that very early in the spring, after one scarifying and harrowing, the corn may be drilled, and without a horse-foot treading any where but in the stich furrows, where it can do no injury. Instead of losing this admirable gift of the atmosphere (winch cannot be renewed,) as was done by the former practice of at least two spring ploughings, it is thus completely preser ved, and the delay, expense, and VC/M. tion, occasioned to the farmer, by the suc cession of rains and north-easterly winds, giving the dreadful alternative of mire and clods, are wholly avoided.
From a comparative estimate of the profits attending the different modes of husbandry, that of the new is stated, after various experiments, to be very nearly in the proportion of three to two : and making the utmost allowance for the influence, by which the sanguine tempe rament of the partizan will interfere with the dispassionate calculations of philoso phy, the advantage on the side of profit is ;ndisputably and greatly with the mo dern system. It is also to be observed,
'ft= most of the accidents attending crops of wheat originate in their being late sown, which, on the old plan, is una voidable ; whereas, in the new method, the farmer may plough the furrow s for the next crop as soon as ever the first is removed. The ground may be ploughed (117, and may be drilled wet. The seed, moreover, is not planted under the fur rows, but at the precisely proper depth. The seed has all the advantage of early sowing-, therefbre, and the crop is more certain than by any other-mode. The land, also, is much less exhausted by this method, the weeds being completely de stroyed by the hoe, and none ofthe plants existing to draw nutriment from the gmund but v.-hat attain their full matu rity; whereas in the usual practice seeds are permitted inevitably to impoverish, and three-fourths of' the plants them selves, after having- derived a certain and a considerable portion of vegetable food from the soil, perish abortively. The state of the land, therefore, must neces sarily and obviously be left far better by the new mode than by the old.
The practice of drill-husbandry ha.s been justly remarked to be the manage ment of the garden brought into the field ; and the grand question relating to it is, whether the extraordinary expense of this finer cultivation be compensated by the superior quality or abundance of its crop ? which the most sagacious and experiencal judg-es have determined in the affirmative.
Even admitting, for a moment, after all, that the practice is not, on the whole, su perior, or equal, to the old mode, its in troduction has at least been highly ser viceable in correcting and refining the old method of cultivation, and some of the reputation of the new one may un doubtedly be allowed to have arisen from a comparison with slovenly and defective methods upon the old plan.