C HAP. IV.

OF THE METHOD OF PLANTING.

OF THE LAZVY-BED METHOD. Autherities from tbe Reports.

HIS method is practiſed in Cheſhire; the land ploughed before Chriſt-

mas; in April ploughed acroſs and harrowed; then ploughed deeply

into beds five feet wide: the end of April, or beginning of May, the ſets are

dibbled in eight or ten inches aſunder. In three weeks, or as ſoon as the

buds appear, trenches are dug between the beds, and the plants covered with two inches of ſoil, ſpread equally; hoed, and weeded: the crop dug.(a)

In the Ifle of Man, on coarſe ſoils, this method adhered to: the butts, or beds, are from ſix to ten feet wide; the trenches from two to three feet; the manure is ſpread on the ſurface of the beds; the cuttings placed at ten inches aſunder, on the dung, and covered with the earth out of the trenches; when the plants appear, a ſecond covering of finer mould; the two, four inches deep: hoe and weed.(5)

Drilling is certainly not ſo productive as planting in beds five feet wide, and covering them on the trenches: the Frodfham method, where the planters are allowed to produce the greateſt quantity in the kingdom.(c)

In Galloway, they make their beds five or ſix feet wide; place the ſeed amongſt dung, or ſea-weed, which they cover from a trench on each ſide the bed.(4)

In the Iſle of Lewis, the cultivation in this method is found to be the moſt ſucceſsful preparative for corn.(e)

In the Ifle of Harris, 200 large creels of ſea-ware are neceſſary to plant 13 barrels of potatoes; all in this method of culture.(†)

9 Cheſter, p. 20.(à5) Iſle of Man, p. 35.() Lancaſter, p. 28, Wright, Ms. ( Galloway, p. 6.(e) Hebrides, p. 14.() Ibid. 18.