English Farming. 351 



of April and the time to put in tlie seed. At each ph^w- 

 ing the ground is rolled and harrowed and every weed or 

 root of any description is picked off by hand, and either 

 drawn off into a compost heap or else burned in a pile. 

 The seed is drilled on ridges mostly, about twenty-three 

 inches apart, hoed twice and thinned, leaving plants ten or 

 twelve inches apart. The manm-e generally used is com- 

 mon barnyard manure, well rotted, and phosphates. The 

 season being favorable, thirtj-five or forty tons of roots to 

 the acre will be produced, which are usually fed on the ground 

 where raised. This is done by using a movable fence, and 

 fencing off a patch in proportion to the size of the stock 

 in the field, the climate being favorable enough to allow 

 cattle and sheep to be kept in the field all winter without 

 shelter, and with nothing for feed save roots. 



The large amount of droppings that would be occasioned 

 by a good crop of roots, and they being most soluble, 

 leave the land in a very good condition for another crop, 

 which on theii- best lands is generally barley, which is 

 raised for feeding purposes and the manufacture of English 

 ale. On their clayey grounds this crop is generally oats, 

 but in other cases the gromid is stocked down with red 

 clover, if the owner wishes to cut it for fodder ; but if he 

 wishes to pasture it the next season, he stocks it down with 

 white clover and a mixture of some other grasses. In 

 either case, whether he cuts it for fodder or pastures it in 

 the fall, it is plowed and sowai with wheat for the fourth 

 crop. Then comes the second round of the rotation again. 



It will be seen that by fallowing the ground and by 

 plowing five or six times, with a good harrowing at each 



