1014. _Steep for Wheat, Barley, or other Grain._--Put a peck and a half of wood-ashes, and a peck of unslaked lime, into a tub that will hold forty gallons; then add as much water as will slake the lime, and render the mixture into the consistence of stiff mortar. In this state it should remain ten or twelve hours; then add as much water as will reduce the mortar to a pulp, by thorough stirring. In this state fill the tub with water, and occasionally keep stirring for two or three days. After which, draw off the clear lye into an open vessel, and gradually put the grain into it: skim off the light grains; and, after the corn has been steeped three hours, spread it on a clean floor to dry, when it will be sufficiently prepared for drilling or sowing. The lye will retain its full virtue, and may be repeatedly used. _Remark._--It has been doubted whether steeps are of any use, except so far as they facilitate the separation of the light grains, and wash off the seeds of the parasite plants, which are thought to occasion _smut_, &c. In the best-cultivated parts of Scotland, seed-wheat is steeped in stale urine, or in a brine made with common salt, which, by increasing the specific gravity of the water, floats the unsound grains. The seed is well washed, and then dried, by mixing it with fresh slaked lime, and rubbing it briskly with a wooden shovel. The quick-lime and rubbing is thought to assist in cleansing the seed; but, independent of that, the mere drying the seed quickly is convenient. 1015. _To sow Wheat to advantage, without laying on Manure._--It has been found expedient sometimes to sow wheat without laying on any manure; and, in the beginning of February, to collect twenty bushels of lime, unslaked, for every acre, and forty bushels of sand, or the rubbish of a brick-kiln; then, about the end of the month, to slake the lime, which doubles the measure, and mix it well with the sand, and, immediately afterwards, to scatter it by way of top-dressing over the green wheat. As rain generally succeeds, it is soon washed down to the roots of the plants, and gives them a vigor and strength, which, to those who never made the experiment, is astonishing. The lime, sand, and rubbish, are particularly useful in breaking the tenacity of stiff clays. In a clay soil, where coal was very cheap, the clay was slightly burned in the field, and spread over the surface, as the cheapest way of subduing the coarseness and stiffness of the soil. The refuse or rubbish from mines in the neighborhood has been burned, and applied with advantage on the same principle.