It requires a farm of forty or fifty acres to give full employment to a pair of horses; and therefore a small farmer, having only twenty or thirty acres of land, should endeavour to plough in partnership with another, and thus obtain the benefit of a team. Those farmers are here spoken of, who have no other employment for their horses than what the cultivation of the farm affords: but there are cases where the distance of fuel and manure, and other circumstances, may make a horse necessary, when it would not be so otherwise.

There are various kinds of ploughs, some with and some without wheels, and new ones are still being invented. Each kind may be supposed to possess some advantages peculiar to itself, and one kind may be better adapted for certain situations than another; but as a general rule, it may be said, that the plough which most effectually opens the soil, with the least labour to the cattle, is unquestionably the best.

The operations of the plough, the harrow, and other instruments of the kind, are all for the purpose of loosening, pulverizing, and mixing the soil, and exposing it to the free action of the atmosphere; and the more effectually this is done, the better will be the produce. In a hard stiff soil, the plants find great difficulty in forcing their way through its unbroken texture in search of nourishment, and their growth is in consequence stunted and feeble; but if this soil be broken up by the plough, and reduced to powder by the use of the harrow and the roller, the plants will readily obtain the nourishment they require, and will flourish accordingly.

The farmer must bear in mind, that solid clods of earth afford no support to the plants; it is only when the clods are duly worked and broken down into minute particles, that the earth of which they consist becomes useful for the purposes of vegetation.

In ploughing, the breadth of the slice is generally about eight inches. The depth must depend on the nature of the soil, and the kind of crop intended to be raised; but it ought never to be less than four inches.

Six or seven inches will generally be sufficient, unless on soils of great depth, or for carrots and other taprooted plants, when the deeper the soil is loosened by the plough, the better will they flourish.

The breadth and elevation of the ridges vary according to the nature of the land. Sixteen or eighteen feet, and raised by two gatherings of the plough, is usually found to be the most convenient-sized ridge; but on dry grounds, it may be formed to any width. If the land is thorough-drained and subsoil-ploughed, it need not be ridged up at all, there being then sufficient means of escape for the water, without the aid of ridgefurrows.

Where the slope of the land will admit of it, the ridges should run as nearly north and south as possible, as they will then be more open to the action of the sun, than if running east and west.

A pair of good horses, working nine hours, ought to plough three-quarters of an acre on strong tenacious soils, and an acre or an acre and quarter on free and light soils. Much, however, will depend on the plough, which, if well made and of a good form, will be light and work easily.

The furrows in an acre will extend to 19,360 yards, supposing each furrow to be nine inches wide; and if we allow twelve yards additional to every 220 yards for the turning, the distance travelled in ploughing an acre may be taken at eleven miles and five furlongs. It has been calculated that when the ridges are no more than eighty yards long, half the working time of the team is lost in turning; but when the ridges are three hundred yards long, only an hour is lost in turning. It follows, therefore, that our fields ought to be of an oblong form, whenever circumstances will admit of its adoption.

When the soil is so stiff and adhesive, that the clods cannot be broken by the usual process of ploughing, cross-ploughing, harrowing, and rolling, recourse must be had to hand-labour with mallets; it being absolutely essential that the hard lumps should be broken down, and the whole of the surface-soil reduced to a pulve

rized state, without which a vigorous vegetation cannot be expected.

FALLOWING.

Generally speaking, if the land be well managed, and a due rotation of crops observed, an open or naked fallow will be unnecessary. But whenever the land gets foul from neglect or bad management, and the farmer is thereby compelled to resort to fallowing, it should be borne in mind, that the three great objects to be attained by a well-conducted fallow are, first, the destruction of seed and root weeds-secondly, a perfect pulverization of the soil-and thirdly, its exposure to the ameliorating influences of the sun and air: and in proportion as these important objects are secured, the productive powers of the land will be increased.

The regular cultivation of fallow crops, as drilled turnips, potatoes, mangel-wurzel, &c., is found to be generally sufficient for effecting these purposes, and to supersede the necessity for a naked summer fallow. On loose friable loams, and on lands denominated "turnip soils," the frequent disturbance of the surface during the summer months, in the operations of hoeing and moulding, opens it to the influence of the sun and air, and at the same time reduces it to the requisite degree of friability; but on soils of a tough adhesive kind, if allowed to get foul, it may sometimes perhaps be found necessary to give a naked fallow, in order to clean the land, and get it into a proper state.

Although a naked summer fallow will generally subject the cultivator to the loss of a crop, yet in some cases an effective fallow may be had on light soils, in time for the Norfolk or white stone turnip, which may be sown as late as the end of July, or even the beginning of August. In general, however, a fallow crop of mangel-wurzel or drilled turnips will be found sufficient to clean and ameliorate the land; and this crop, with barley the year following, will probably pay better than a crop of wheat.

Land may be fallowed under turnips in drill, or under potatoes, mangel-wurzel, or any other drilled crop that will admit of the intervals being horse-hoed; but the drills should be sufficiently wide apart to admit of this being done effectually, or it will be difficult to keep down the weeds. Beans are also considered a fallowcrop, but as they must be planted in March, if the land should require a good summer cleaning, the drills ought to be not less than two feet and a half asunder, in order that the intervals may be well worked with the horsehoe, and for the weeds to be carried off without injuring the stalks.

The process of naked fallowing, when resorted to on strong land, should be as follows:-Winter-plough as deep as the roots of couch or rooted weeds have penetrated, and let the land lie in narrow ridges until February or March; then cross-cut the sods at the same depth, leaving them as open as possible on the surface. When the land becomes dry in spring, either scuffle it, or break it down with a heavy harrow, and leave it in a rough state for a fortnight, until the seed-weeds have vegetated. The land should then be rolled flat, and again well harrowed, observing not to roll more of it than what can be harrowed and well cleaned during the same day; for should showery weather succeed after the land is rolled, it will be more difficult to work it afterwards. After this operation, wait until more seedweeds appear, when the land should receive the third ploughing, a little deeper than the first, and so remain until the same process is gone through again. The fourth ploughing is to be given at the period of putting in the crop; but should the season prove favourable for the destruction of weeds, and for the pulverization of the soil, no more than three ploughings may be necessary; although, as a general rule, it may be said, that the oftener the land is ploughed the better.

This is the only proper system of naked fallowing, and it is very different from the natural fallow, too commonly practised, where the land, become foul and exhausted by over-cropping, is left to lie waste for a season, throwing up weeds and rubbish.

SOWING.

The seed to be sown, must be suited to the soil and the climate. It should be sound, and have been thoroughly ripened; and it should not be the produce of successive crops on the same land, but be changed, or else be raised from seed which had been changed the preceding year. These points are each important, and will always be attended to by the intelligent farmer.

The effects of a change of seed are often extraordinary, sometimes nearly doubling the quantity of grain, whilst the straw is at the same time increased in proportion. The change may, however, be too extreme, and failure may ensue in consequence; and it seems therefore desirable to make the change, and to introduce the several varieties, gradually and successively, having regard in each case to climate, soil, and situation.

Sowing, though most commonly done broadcast, may yet be advantageously done by drilling, and on very small farms even dibbling may sometimes be resorted to with advantage, the saving of seed more than compensating for the additional labour. Instead of dibbling, the seed is sometimes dropped by hand into the furrow after the plough. By this mode much seed is saved, and the crop will rise as regular as if it had been drilled. It is somewhat less laborious than dibbling, but it takes more seed. In broadcast-sowing the chief object is to scatter the seed equally over the surface, leaving no part bare, and yet not too thickly sown. In drilling, the space between the drills admits of hoeing and hand weeding, and hence the land may be kept clean, while the crop will in general be more equal on every part of the field.

A prejudice sometimes exists against early sowing, because the straw is said not to be so bulky as when the seed is sown later; but if we observe the practice of those farmers who are most successful, it will be found that the man who is backward in his operations, who sows late, and consequently reaps late, is always poor;