AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 239 



them unploughed and whole until after Christmas. We have never seen 

 cause to recede from our early opinion. The labour of working and cleaning 

 light lands is absolutely trifling, compared with that indispensable to the wet 

 and heavy; thence the former may be left whole throughout the winter 

 without risk. Not so the latter, which requires so much more labour and 

 length of time, and is so difficult of access in wet weather, '.that with'- it time 

 should be taken by the forelock. Under whatever circumstances of weather, 

 heavy lands should be broken up in the Autumn, the earlier the better, and 

 laid up in narrow ridges to be furrow-drained, or in case of frost and dry 

 weather, that the greatest possible extent of soil may receive the benefit and 

 improvement most desirable for it. The advantage of this practice will be 

 apparent in early Spring, and fullly appreciated by the farmer, in the im- 

 proved and ready state of the lands for the remaining operations. The dif- 

 ference of climate, or as Marshal, were he living, would phrase it, climature, 

 between ours and that of the opposite continent, the smallness of the distance 

 between them considered, is remarkable. Whilst the rivers in Holland and 

 Belgium have been already frozen to hackney-coach proof, the frosts in our 

 country have been scarcely severe enough to cover the surface of a brook 

 with ice of half-a-crown thickness. 



Little of novelty presents in respect ta the growing crops. In some dis- 

 tricts the later sown wheats have got a-head of the early sown ; in others, 

 the former were scarcely above ground on the commencement of the present 

 month, and had not the season been unseasonably mild, they would not have 

 appeared to greet the new year. For the most part, however, this important 

 crop is luxuriant and promising, suffering from no enemy but the slug, which 

 in some instances, fortunately bnt few, has made a tremendous havoc. In 

 an excursion during last month, we were informed by a farmer of a seven 

 acred piece of wheat, the thickest on the ground, and the finest in the vici- 

 nity, devoured in numberless spots by those vermin, as if fed off by sheep. 

 As an experiment to try the efficacy of a remedy long and often recom- 

 mended, a top-dressing of lime and soap-ashes was carted upon the land. 

 The young clovers and artificial grasses generally are so forward and luxuri- 

 ant, that frost of any severity or length will be nearly fatal to them. The 

 little clover-seed which has been thrashed fully sanctions the opinion of the 

 goodness of that crop, whilst sainfoin proves generally defective both in 

 quantity and quality. To the unexpected great improvement in the turnip 

 crop, which we noted in our last, may be added the present prevailing opi- 

 nion, that it is now clear of danger from the rot. The quantity of keep 

 abroad, where, from the mildness of the season, live stock has been generally 

 supported with the aid of a small quantity of hay, has economized both that 

 crop and the turnips to the degree of putting an end to all apprehension of a 

 scarcity of food in the Spring, a piece of good fortune of no slight conse- 

 quence to stock-feeders, considering the scarcity and general bad quality of 

 the straw, so great a part of it blighted, musty, and calculated rather to in- 

 jure than benefit the cattle fed upon it. Even in the north of Scotland the 

 season has hitherto proved so mild, as to offer no interruption to the opera- 

 tions of husbandry, which are generally in a state of great forwardness. The 

 slight frosts they have had proved very beneficial to the turnips, by prevent- 

 ing them from running to flower, and preserving them sound and nutritious ; 

 but that crop to the northward of the Tweed has not experienced a resurrec- 

 tion equal to that of ours in the south. The crop of turnips in Scotland, 

 however it may have preserved its quality, is said to be so defective, that con- 

 siderable quantities of potatoes will be required in the Spring as cattle food. 

 The complaint seems general, that the low price of this now indispensable 

 root returns no profit, notwithstanding the considerably reduced growth of 

 last season. The Scotch farmers are fully stocked with cattle, in conse- 

 quence of a resolution among them not to comply with the low and ruinous 



