THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



lisy 



artificial manure — due in exchange for the straw carried 

 away. This, as we said, according to Mr. Smith's ex- 

 perience, will give us at least £2 an acre clear profit 

 when wheat is at -lOs. a quarter, and £4 profit when the 

 price rises to 50^. 



Let ns iiow inquire whether the scheme is " practica- 

 ble," taking for granted that it would answer. And, 

 first, are the cultural processes of such a nature, and so 

 timed, that a farmer's ordinary force of teams and 

 labourers could accomplish them at the proper seasons, 

 and do so without neglecting the requirements of other 

 crops or evading the general farm work ? For of course it 

 will be useless to test with a few acresa plan that, when 

 adopted on a larger scale, would set fast all our horses 

 and men at inconvenient seasons, and hinder us from 

 properly cultivating the rest of our land. Now, in 

 '■ gettiug-in " 12U acres of wheat by our common hus- 

 bandry, there are say 50 acres to be ploughed, and 70 

 acres to be pared or scarified and cleaned as well as 

 ploughed; and all to be well harrowed (some rolled) and 

 drilled. These operations occupy fourteen horses (the 

 force kept on the farm), say twelve days in doing the 60 

 acres, and thirty days in doing the 70 acres; that is, the 

 whole preparation and wheat-seeding, from first to last, 

 takes up forty-two clear days. But potatoes and mangolds 

 having to be harvested, turnips stored, vetches got in, 

 stubble carted, sold produce delivered, &c.,a much larger 

 period elapses in reality between the commencement and 

 the completion of wheat-sowing. However, if we can 

 get-in 120 acres of Lois-Weedon wheat by forty-two 

 days' work of fourteen horses, our wheat-sowing will 

 take no longer than at present ; and we shall not be en- 

 croaching on other indispensable kibours of the farm. 

 Well, our present (second) crop of 10 acres was got-in 

 the first week of October. The horse-labour for clear- 

 ing the stubble and scarifying the intervals ready for the 

 seed was equivalent to ten horses for one day, and that 

 of harrowing, rolling, drilling, and afterwards grubbing 

 and cleaning the old stubble spaces, etiualled thirty 

 horses for a day. This amounts to forty days' work ; so 

 that fourteen horses would have accomplished all in less 

 than three days : whence we find that 120 acres would 

 occupy them about thirty -lour days. Here we have 

 eight diys in hand — or, in other words, have sown our 

 wheat crop in one-fifth less time than is necessary under 

 the common system. And *' early sowing " being in- 

 dispensable to success, we should begin in September ; 

 so that there is no fear of want of time for putting in all 

 the wheat on a farm in this way. 



Were we to farm on the Lois-Weedou principle, 

 having two-fifths of our land in three-row wheat, we 

 should have the remaining three-fifths under suitable 

 green-croj>s and spring corn ; but, for the sake of avoid- 

 ing calculations as to the apportionment of labour at dif- 

 ferent seasons among the crops in such a new order of 

 succession or rotation, we suppose the three-fifths to be 

 managed precisely as though it were a farm lo itself un- 

 der the present husbmdiy. These 180 acres would 

 have two-fifths — that is, 72 acres — wheat, ploughed for, 

 &c., as at present, requiring eighteen or twenty days' 

 work of the fourteen horses. Our total seed-time will 

 be altogether ten or twelve days longer than before ; 

 against which we must rcmembt r that there will be less 

 of other work than formerly, owing to the diminished 

 area of the other varieties of cropping. 



During the latter part of October, November, and 

 December — beginning directly the young wheat is well 

 up, and taking advantage of periods of dry weather — the 

 deep- working of the (allow intervals must be done. We 

 find that one set of five horses efl'ects this on 10 acres 

 in the course of two days ; consequently two sets, or 

 ten horses out of our fourteen, would finish the 120 acres 

 in twelve days. The principal tillage operation on the 



other portions of the farm that would be a little delayed 

 iu consequence is only the ploughing of 72 acres of stub- 

 ble for pulse cropping or for fallow. 



As we shall see when we come to describe our process, 

 only half of each interval is subsided ihe first time ; and 

 in January and February, or directly suitable weather 

 fitllows the snow and frost, the same amount of horse- 

 labour is required to complete the deep tillage which we 

 adopt in place of digging. This latter twelve days' work 

 for two-thirds of our horses come just at the time when 

 spring corn has to be sown ; but bear in mind that we 

 have 11 horses, the full allowance for 300 acres arable, 

 while (owing to the permanent setting apart of two-fifths 

 of the farm for Lois Weedon wheat) the breadth of 

 spring cropping is only that proper to a 180-acre farm 

 — that is, three-fifths of the extent which would be 

 grown were the whole 300 acres in rotation. Instead of 

 90 acres of beans and peas, oats, and barley or potatoes, 

 there will be only oi acres ; and the time saved by 

 having 36 acres less to get in, will go far towards sparing 

 the teams for the second subsoiling of our wheat. 



Tolerably dry weather being a necessary preliminary 

 to each of these operations, not only for the purpose of 

 effectively breaking-up the subsoil, but also to avoid 

 " mauling" the wheat-iows and puddling the surface 

 with thi^ horses' feet ; it may be obj-icted that the wea- 

 ther will preclude our deep tillage, except in a re- 

 markably dry season. We liave had only two winters' 

 experience ; the present one unprecedented for absence 

 of downfall and scantiness of water in ponds, wells, 

 and drains. But in November, 1856, our first opera- 

 tion was stopped by rain and then snow, after half-a- 

 day's work ; in December it was completed, though need- 

 lessly done when the ground was too wet. The se- 

 cond operation was performed in February, and this note 

 was made at the time — " Several fine days before, on 

 which the work might have been done ; and if postponed, 

 there were still several more fine days which would have 

 given an opportunity." This last winter the first ope- 

 ration was well done in December alter prolonged dry 

 weather, and the second was done in February after 

 many days in which the soil would have broken up equally 

 well, and succeeded by plenty of bright open weather. 

 Supposing a heavy full of rain to follow the wheat- 

 seeding and snow-blasts to occur, with other weather 

 unsuitable to the drying of the ground, there would ne- 

 cessarily be a delay in accomplishing the tillage ; but as 

 it is during a frost that the exposure ( f the subsoil is 

 most desirable, we can very well wait until any " great 

 wets" are over. We shall have the range of at least 

 two-and-a-half months in which to get our first twelve 

 (lays' work, though on an average half the number of 

 days in these months are more or less " rainy ;" and 

 our second twelve days' work mu.=.t be caught during Ja- 

 nuary and February when the weather is not at all more 

 propitious. 



Rolling the wheat in March will take up very little of 

 the horse-power of the farm. Scarifying the fallow in- 

 tervals in April or May occupies three horses for two 

 days in doing our 10 acres, so that two sets of three 

 each would finish 120 acres in twelve days, or twelve 

 horses (working four implements) in six days. This will 

 not much interfere with the fallowing an4 other business 

 going on upon the 180 acres. 



Horse-hoeing the intervals in May, again in June, or 

 wh?never required, will be a short matter; for one horse 

 finishes our 10 acres within one and three-quarter days, 

 consequently four horses would hoe 120 acres in about 

 five days. 



Hand-hoeing and weeding the wheat stripes may be 

 reckoned upon as demanding about the same labour as 

 a similar number of acres on the common system, the 

 wider spaces favouring the annual weeds, though there 



