In one of my early experiments in Drilling, I found that hoeing the intervals between the rows or drills was indifpenfably neceffary; otherwife, where land was foul with weeds, or caked upon the surface, fo as to exclude the air from the fibres of the plants, or hinder the extension of the fibres in the foil, the advantages of Drilling were, upon the whole, not worthy of notice. On the contrary, and by the fame experiment, I found that, by hoeing the intervals, cutting up the weeds, and pulverizing the foil at seasonable times, a furprifing and almost incredible advantage might be derived: this left me no alternative but that of declining the Drill System altogether, except for beans and peas, at wide diftances, where the horse-hoe, or fhim, might work; or of fubmitting to the formidable expence of hand-hoeing the intervals of drills at nearer distances. To the advantages gained by hoeing, I was at that time no stranger; and I was not long in finding out that the value of feed faved by Drilling, would more than defray the expences of hoeing; and the hoeing, hoeing, I was confident, would insure a fuperior crop from whence I concluded that the only obstacle that lay between me and fuccefs, in the Drill Syftem, upon a large fcale, was the difficulty, if not the impoffibility of procuring a fufficient number of labourers to perform the business of hoeing, just at the time required: and, as I apprehended, fo it has turned out: the difficulty in procuring a number of hands in due time, and, in ticklish seasons, perhaps at an hour's notice, is very confiderable; exclufive of the attention required in feeing that the work was done in a husbandmanlike manner, and the fear of the crops of corn growing too high to admit of the use of the hoe: the weeds at the fame time committing fuch horrid depredations, without a poffibility of retrieving the lofs, muft needs create no little anxiety of mind. Anxious, however, as I may have been, at intervals, on this account, for three years last past, I have now the pleasure of saying, that all the above fears and anxieties, anxieties are done away, being now in poffeffion of an inftrument, viz. a Horse-hoe, the ingenious invention of the Rev. Mr. Cooke, to whom a large fhare of public praise is certainly due, not only for this inftrument, and his improved Drill, but also for his fpirited exertions, and indefatigable labour, in introducing the Drill System at large. Of the utility of the above Horse-hoe I am inclined to entertain a very high opinion, having already tried it upon a piece of drilled wheat; and find that the Inventor has, by a moft fimple contrivance, enabled the person who attends the inftrument, to guide it fo as to avoid cutting up the rows of corn. Its effects appear to be superior to those of Hand-hoeing; and, fo far as I have experienced, I have reason to believe that two men, or one man and a boy, with two horfes, working alternately, will effectually hoe ten acres a day. It is not ufual with me to decide hastily and prematurely, for or against any inftru ment ment not yet sufficiently tried: I am nevertheless inclined to think, that by this invention the Drill Syftem will foon be brought to perfection, at least to such a degree of perfection as to enable every husbandman of common capacity only, to understand and practise it. ACCOUNT of the different Sorts of Grain produced from Seed fown by the Rev. Mr. Cooke's N° 1. Beans drilled upon loamy fand, after barley 2. Ditto ditto ditto 3. Barley, drilled upon loamy fand, after turneps 4. Barley, drilled upon fandy land, after peas 5. Ditto 6. Ditto ditto ditto 7. Beans drilled upon fand and mixed foil, after barley 10. Wheat drilled upon marl and mixed foil, after clover 15. Wheat fowed broad-caft, upon loamy fand, after turneps, and The above land was meafured, and the workmen examined, by me Wimpftone, near Stratford upon Avon, 107 6 2 1 29 4 2 2 3 23 4 5 JOSEPH BARBER. Jan. 28, 1789. |