THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



387 



lings ; tithe, six shillings per acre ; and other burdens 

 not peculiarly heavy. Growing every description of 

 cropping, and in rotation almost at will — say, two-fifths, 

 or one hundred and twenty acres, are wheat every year. 

 As it is, this proportion of wheat, together with thirty 

 acres of oats for the hors-s, and also a little piece of 

 barley, is the largest breadth of white corn we can well 

 grow : that is, it, is all that the necessity for alternating 

 white straw with green crops, &c., will permit and 

 enable us to prepare for it. But if wheat is to follow 

 itself year after year fur any period of time whatever, 

 the exle:it of ground we can prepare by rotation is no 

 longer a limit to the breadth we may sow. Thus, unless 

 there be other objections, we may have half, or more 

 than half of our three hundred acres in wheat every 

 year; and the remainder green and other crops, 

 according to the character of farmin-j; and live-stock 

 breeding or feeding that may be practised. If we 

 choose to cultivate only one hundred and twenty acres 

 of wheat as at present, this quantity of land will be set 

 apart to produce wheat in perpetuity ; while the other 

 one hundred and eighty acres maybe all in other crops, 

 as roots, artificial-grasses, and beans, peis, and oats, in 

 different and rather novel rotntions. But for the sake 

 of simplifying calculation, let us suppose that one 

 hundred and twenty acres of the most suitable 

 wheat land is pa7-ti(ioned off from the farm, 

 to be entirely setf-suslaining and b<ar the three- 

 row ichcat every year ; while the remaining 

 one hundred and eighty acres is managed as if it 

 were a complete farm in i^seZ/"— two-fifths of it under 

 wheat, and the rest green and other crops, as at present. 

 We shall thus have an auxiliary 120-acre wheat-far qi, 

 as it were, not only yielding its harvest every year with- 

 out manure, but producing a large amount of straw to 

 manure and enrich what may be called the 180-acre 

 farm. And either the same fields may be permanently 

 kept under the three-row culture, or every year a cer- 

 tain portion may he given tip to the general cropping, 

 and an erjual breadth taken from the 180 acres ; so as 

 to travel gradually round the whole or any part of the 

 300 acres with the new system. The proposal is, that 

 on this 120 acres, mdependent of any green-cropping, 

 fallowing, or shepp-feeding, we are to get an annual re- 

 turn of i'ljUO, by an outlay of £720 — that is, we 

 realize a clear profit or income of £i2Q a year when 

 wheat is at only 40s. per qr., the gain vising to i;660 

 when the prico jumps up to 50s. This would be a good 

 interest for capital, at any rate, if not exactly equal to 

 the famous druggists' per-centage of " elevenpence- 

 halfpenny in the shilling." 



We are supposing, of course, that the cost and results 

 will be similar to those of Lois-Weedon itself, with the 

 neccFsary allowance made for the lower value of our 

 straw. If it be found that we can thus raise our wheat 

 crop year after year without manure, we shall certainly 

 be drawing large quantities of manure (in the shape of 

 straw) from the I'iO acres, with which to fructify the 

 180 acres. And how extraordinarily must this great 

 bulk of straw add to the productive power of the 180- 

 acre farm, to which it is every year carried ! Thus, by 

 adopting this system, we are not only to gain largely in 

 pecuniary profit from two-fifths of our land, but at the 

 same time produce more corn, meat, vegetables, etc., 

 from the other three-fifths: we shall raise the value of 

 the thus more proiitable farm, and create additional de- 

 mand, and consequently better wages, for labour 

 required in the treatment and manipulation of our extra 

 crops and more numerous live stoclv. 



There is something marvellous in increasing the total 

 fertility of an estate by means of a wheat crop acquired 

 mainly from the atmosphere .' For that it is so at 

 Lois-Weedon, let no one doubt. Mechjnical tillage, 



without an ounce of manurial dressing, there maintains 

 the productiveness of the wheat-fields, with so slight a 

 diminution of the fertile constituents of the soil itself 

 as not to be perceptible (we might almost think) in fifty 

 years or a century ; the land at present positively getting 

 better, instead of gradually worse. It is a fact that Mr. 

 Smith's twelfth year's crop is the heaviest and best bo 

 has had ; and (let it never be forgotten) not only with- 

 out manure, but without his bringing up or making use 

 of an atom of fresh subsoil, only half the previously- 

 attained depth of digging having been practised during 

 the last three years. 



" Well, but remember, Mr. Smith's results are ob- 

 tained by exceedingly deep culture with the spade." 

 Yes, on the stiff-clay piece ; but on the light four-acre 

 field, he only goes twelve or thirteen inches down with 

 his forking ; and it is possible to match this depth with 

 horse-labour. His average yield on this gravelly land 

 is thirty-four bushels, because, though unsuitable for 

 whe:it, it was dressed some years ago with the substance 

 most required— that is, it received an application of 

 clay, the charge for which is spread over a number of 

 years. If we cannot get the expected amount of pro- 

 duce, owing to horse-tillage proving of inferior efficacy 

 to that of the spade or f^rk, we may yet obtain, pos- 

 sibly, as large a surplus or profit, because of the lower 

 cost of the horse power, cosnpared with manual opera- 

 tions; and" prefit' is what we want. But we need not sup- 

 pose that our production of corn for the community would 

 fall short, by our thus reaping less yield per acre on the 

 Lois-Weedon than on the common plan ; because the 

 former bears wheat every year, and the latter only twice 

 in five years. Under the ordinary management, say, 

 that each acre of the one hundred and twenty yields 

 even the heavy crop of five quarters, that is ten quarters 

 of wheat in five years, then a yearly produce of only 

 two quarters from the new system will equal this amount 

 in the same period. But we must grow more thaa 

 this, in order to have a produce equivalent in value, 

 not only to the wheat, but also to the crops of the other 

 three years in the course. What crops, then, do one 

 hundred and twenty acres usually bear every year, with 

 a rotation admitting two-fifths to be in wheat ? The 

 quantities may be taken at forty-eight acres wheat, 

 twelve acres oats, sixteen acres peas and beans, eight 

 acres barley or potatoes, twelve acres clover, and twenty- 

 four acres roots, &c. What is the worth of all this 

 cropping ; and had all been wheat, what yield per acre 

 would have made a total produce of equal value ? Now, 

 without enteiing into minute figures, let us compare the 

 corn crops at present prices, and reckon the clover, roots, 

 &c., as worth, say £7 an acre ; the value of the crops 

 on the one hundred and twenty acres will be at the ut- 

 most about i;i,200 or £'10 per acre, and this is equal 

 to the value of four quarters of wheat per acre on the 

 whole area. S.. that, as far as mere worth of produce is 

 concerned, every acre of the new system ought to yield 

 at most some four quarters annually, in order that the 

 national marke's may not suffer. But of course, the 

 principal consideration for the farmer is, will the ex- 

 pense of cultivation under the proposed system amount 

 to less than that of the present fallowirg, ficding, ma- 

 nuring, &c , and so leave a wider margin of profit ? 

 With Mr. Smith's expenditure, the yearly profit from 

 this yield would be (as we huve already said) about i.3 

 per acre, when wheat is at the low figure of only 408. 

 The cost of our own operations by horse labour will ap- 

 pear in due course. 



We havft suppored that on a three-hundred-acre arable 

 farm, one hundred and twenty acres are set apart for the 

 growth of wheat year after year on the triple row and 

 tallow-interval method ; the remainder of the farm (to 

 make our calculation easy) being managed as if it were 



