THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



239 



they had most to contend with, aud the process of fuilowin^ 

 well, aud careful hoeiujc, aud clearing the drills of the growing 

 crops, was perhaps the only true mode of overcoming these their 

 auuiial weeds, such as wild mustard and chickweed, aud worst 

 of all, that euemy to ciiltivaiiou, couch grass. The first step, 

 as be conceived, in obtaining an entire clearance of weeds of 

 this description, is to have ihe laud properly draiued; for 

 draining was the great cardinal virtue of agricultural progress. 

 If they happened to be going over a farm, as was often his case, 

 aud saw a spot in a field more brown and less fertile aud more 

 productive of weeds and couch than another, they were told, 

 " That is a wet spot : we cau't get it well worked." But then 

 there was such a thing as draining to extract the wet ; and in 

 Other cases they found that if a portion of a farm was very foul, 

 the excuse for this was, " It was a wet summer when it was 

 last in fallow, and we could not get it cleaned." There was 

 great truth and reason in these things ; but the only way to 

 overcome them was to take the wet out of the soil and to 

 make it uniform in its surface, so that the same manner of 

 work and the same kind of cropping will be equally suited to 

 the whole of a field. These were subjects that he hardly need 

 detail to a company like that, because they were matters of 

 practical kuowledge that were before them, and they were 

 suhjects of everyday experience ; at the same time, it was 

 perfectly allowable, when they were met together to endeavour 

 to improve the ruaiiagemeut of a district and its farming and 

 general produce, that these things should be taken uuder their 

 very serious cousiderdtiou. Another subject — that of fallow- 

 ing, which was one of the greatest possible importance — had 

 lately been very much discussed, and gr^at recooimeudation 

 had been given to autumn fallowing. It had been said by 

 very good judges that if they wished them to judge of teaantry 

 let them look over their farms in autumu, and that the best 

 tenant would be seen by the cleanness and style in which the 

 fallowing had been done ; he did not mean bare fallow alone, 

 but a fallow which consisted of green crops, put up in such a 

 way that horse lioes, baud hoes, aud all the implements used 

 for such purposes, could be employed. Last autumu gave a 

 good opportunity, which he was happy to see made available 

 by many farmers, for cleaning the land aud advancing the work 

 for the ensuing spring. The spring might not happen to be 

 80 favourable as was the autumn. He had, in his small way — 

 it was too small lor him to presume to set himself up as an ex- 

 ample of good farming — but still, if there was safety, economy, 

 and advantage upon a small scale, that advantage and economy 

 must tell iu the same proportion upon a larger scale. It hap- 

 pened to him that he had ou'y a small patch of grouud, in which 

 was about ten acres of turnips each year, and be had only oue 

 pair of horses to do that, carry his coal, and everything be 

 wanted. It therefore required him to economise the labour; 

 some part of his land was rather strong aad heavy, not very 

 congenial for turnip soil, although he had a portion of that too, 

 though if it were worked and laid flat in the common way in the 

 spring, and then should get a very heavy fall of rain, it would 

 run together in such a way that his poor pair of horses could 

 never again overcome it, or put it into such a condition as they 

 all knew was necessary for the production of a turnip crop, 

 because the small seed of the turnip would not vegetate, and 

 could not grow well if the soil into which it was put was not 

 equally minute iu its particles, and as near iu a state of powder 

 aa might be ; but if laud with a little dampness or tenacity in 

 it requires to be worked up late iu the season, he needn't tell 

 them, practical farmers, what a difficulty there was iu over- 

 coming that loss of lime, and in getting a crop of turnips. 

 The plan he had followed — and he hoped they would not think 

 it presumptuous in him to name it to them, and they could 

 follow it or not — was this : He began, as soon as the crop was 

 stored, or as soon as possible, with skim-ploughing the sur- 

 face, harrowing and raking it together, and carting it oflf, put- 

 ting it into the fold-yard to be the nucleus of the manure heap 

 for next year. He then gave the laud a lieep ploughing, har- 

 rowed it, and put it into drills ready for the manure. When 

 the manure was put in he reversed the drills, and so it lay, 

 and nearly one-half of his turnip land was now in that condi- 

 tion, drilled, manured, aud exposed to all the changes of the 

 atmosphere during the winter. It came to be found iu a mellow 

 condition in the spring, and the turnips were sown upon this; 

 whereas, as he told them before, if t)j«land required to be worked 

 up in a damp state, he could not make turnips of it at all, and 

 for the few years he had practised this, he had never failed in 

 finding that the turnips sown upon that portion of the land 



came quickest into leaf, aud overcame in the shortest period 

 that great didiculty of rearing a goad crop of turnips — that of 

 coming quickly to the hoe. He ascribed it to this reason : 

 the land upon the top of the drill was exceedingly mellow 

 and line; tiie manure had been undergoing — not the i'er- 

 mcntatiou wiiich it got when thrown into great heaps, where 

 it di.spersed its ammonia iuto the air, aud wasted much of 

 its best virtues — but it underwent the slow and quiet pro- 

 cess of formeutation throughout the winter, covered up with 

 soil ; and tliey found in the spring all the soil contiguous to 

 the manure in a soft and brown condition, having inhaled 

 much of the virtue which the manure had given oil'. It was 

 generally the practice to use some kind of extraneous matter 

 with that from the fold-yard ; the manner of doing this was 

 only to run the drills over with a light harrow of any kind, 

 but more especially with those little concave harrows of 

 which they had seen specimens — one horse drawing two, 

 and doing two rows at one time. This puts the top of the 

 drill a little on the bite, and the guano, bone-dust, or other 

 manure sown was set up to a top of the drill by passing a 

 double mould-board plough through it. The seed was sown 

 upon this portion of the soil ; and he believed Mr. Lee and 

 other neighbours that might have seen his process would 

 bear him out in saying that the produce had not only been 

 very quick, but very good. He thought this a matter im- 

 portant to be considered, because the quantity of turnip land 

 in this and other countries was much increased, and natu- 

 rally so, from the introduction ol extraneous and foreign 

 manures, which, together with draining, allowed farmers to 

 go over a much larger surface. If, then, by such a process as 

 this there was an economy of labour, and if that economy 

 was at the same time connected with success in the produc- 

 tion of a good crop, it could not but be a subject worthy of 

 their consideration. He invited discussion, and said he 

 should be very glad to answer any question relative to the 

 subject. On that and all occasions he should be most happy 

 to do his humble endeavours to promote the welfare and ad- 

 vancement of the agriculture of Tyneside. 



Mr. DoDDS had always followed the practice recommended 

 by the Chairman, of getting his fallow clean in the autumn; 

 and the mode he took to do so was very simple. If tne laud 

 was light, he simply put the grubbers through it, and com- 

 menced harrowing and hoeing, and if necessary raking. If 

 the land was at all stiff, he took an ordinary plough — several 

 had been invented, but they only added a great many imple- 

 ments to the farmer's stock, and were expensive to obtain— 

 with a few broad shares, and it could be used with or without 

 the mould-board. He got out the t« itch with great facihty 

 by simply cutting the roots with the mould-board of the 

 plough ; but a little bit of sheet-iron instead of the mould- 

 board would make the twitch come out much more readily 

 than if turned over altogether on its back, or left lying. After 

 going over it once with grubbers and hoes and rakes he 

 grubbed it again. Tne land cleaned much more easily in 

 autumn than if the tools were left to ramify during the winter. 

 If they set to work immediately after harvest, especially on 

 dry lands, to get out the twitch, the work would be greatly 

 lightened in spring. 



Mr. LoRAiNE wished to impress the importance not only of 

 destroying the weeds, but of destroying them at the proper 

 time. The greatest enemy to the farmer was the thistle — a 

 weed whose seeds blew far and wide caused an immense ex- 

 pense, and caused the corn to reap badly. When thistlea 

 were not cut till they were a certain height, they ripened, aud 

 the seeds were blown in all directions. He asked Mr. Grey to 

 suggest the right time for destroying thistles. 



Mr. Bird said he had about seventy acres of land, ten of 

 which were in turnips. The great seminarium of twitch grass 

 was the seeds. On dry lands he pushed on his seeds as well 

 as he could, with a little assistance from nitrate of soda ; he 

 cut them before they were well seeded, and then he afterwards 

 got a crop of turnips. Then came barley and seeds, and he 

 took care to cut them before they were shedding their leeds, 

 and in time also to get a very good crop of turnips. Then he 

 came with barley afterwards, and sent his work-people to see 

 if any weeds were left ; they found very few left ; and after 

 he had had four years' experience of this practice, he had no 

 necessity to gather a weed, because the land was clean. A 

 farmer, having a sixteen-years' lease, could save the expense 

 four times over before the lease was out. 



Mr. Leb found no difficulty in letting grass remain two 



