518

ON THE ARABLE BAND

The high drills or ridgelets are next split out or reversed,either by means of the common plough, or by one with twomould boards, which covers the seed in the most perfect man-ner.

In the other mode of drilling, the seed is sown at the sametime with the spring-ploughing. If dung is given, it is pre-viously spread over the surface of the winter furrow, and isploughed in during this spring-ploughing. Three ploughsstart in succession immediately after each other, and a drillbarrow continually follows the third plough, by which a rowor drill of beans is sown in each successive third furrow, atfrom twenty-four to twenty-seven inches asunder, accordingto the breadth of the furrow-slice. It is obvious, that thissystem may be so extended upon large farms, that each thirdplough, or any number divisible by three, shall have a drillbarrow in its rear, or attached to the plough itself.

The most approved way of sowing beans, however, whendung is applied at seed-time, is to spread the dung and toplough it down with a strong furrow, after which light fur-rows are drawn, into which the seed is deposited by the drillmachine. The dung used in this way ought always to bewell prepared.

Whichever of these modes of drilling are followed, thewhole field must be carefully and industriously water-furrow-ed in every necessary place, by means of the plough andshovel, as already several times insisted upon.

It has often been disputed among experienced husband-men, whether broad or narrow intervals between the drills ofbeans, are most advantageous ? In all the well managed dis-tricts of Scotland , broad intervals have been adopted; while inthe bean districts of England, where drilling or dibbling pre-vail, narrow intervals are chiefly used. It cannot be deniedthat narrow intervals are by no means favourable to the horse •hoeing mode of cultivation, so that wherever they prevail,hand-hoeing is almost exclusively resorted to, which is by nomeans sufficiently efficacious on clay soils.