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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



put to work on the bye-day, and one division of 

 the yard was well stocked with implements. 

 But on any of these classes it is not our object 

 to dwell. Let us rather follow Lord Shrews- 

 bury and his fair friends into the cooperage, 

 where, profiting by the admirable example of the 

 Sparkenhoe Club, ladies are invited not merely to hear 

 the speeches, but to taste the venison, and take a pull 

 at the "malt liquor included." Never before has 

 Burton known such a party. Never yet was there such 

 an illustration of the'old rhyming itenerary, that tells 



you 



" There's Barton under Needwood, 

 And Dunstall in the dale. 

 And Taten Hill for pretty girls, 

 And Burton for good ale." 



Whether Barton was represented we know not, and 

 how Dunstall fared we care not. But Taten must 

 have sent in every pretty girl within the range of its 

 proud pre-eminence ; while, as for the good ale ! It 

 drank even better than at breakfast — or at lunch — or 

 when one went to look at the dray-horses — or to try the 

 cheeses— or to see the works — or on any other occasion 

 during the morning's business, when a glass of beer 

 was so indispensable a part of the proceedings. Alas ! 

 that conventional misrule should have compelled so 

 congenial a company to drink to their Queen, soldiers, 

 sailors, or pretty girls in any other liquid. Let us, 

 though be supposed to have done soj and, having 

 duly cheered Captain Levitt's neat gallantry, and Mr. 

 Adderley's audacious eloquence, hasten on to the only 

 agricultural speech of the evening. Of course it is 

 flavoured with " bitter," for Mr. Michael Bass, the 

 member for Derby, delivers it : — " No town in England 

 was more interested in the prosperity of agriculture than 

 Burton, and the agriculturists of England ought to be 

 somewhat interested in the prosperity of the town of 

 Burton, Let him tell them what the townsmen of 

 Burton did for agriculture. Every year they consumed 

 320,000 quarters of barley, paying duty upon this to 

 the amount of £400,000. In the same period they 

 used 40,000 cwt. of hops; and thus, if they took their 

 share, they would consume more than half the crop 

 grown in the United Kingdom. They paid every day in 

 the year more than ^1,000 to the revenue of the coun- 

 try. It was said, indeed, that the town would have to 

 pay this year £600,000 more for hops than last, but 

 he hoped that in this statement there was some little 

 exaggeration. But it was certain that the amount 



would be much larger than usual It was a great 



pity that the brewers could notalways buy the produce of 

 their neighbours, not but that they had the kindest feel- 

 ings towards them, but because the farmers could 

 not produce that quality of barley which would suit 

 the brewer's purposes. In his humble opinion the 

 mode of growing barley in this country was not 

 adapted to produce those fine qualities so requisite for 

 his own business. When they grew barley immediately 

 after turnips, with a large quantity of seeds— in a year 

 like this, especially when the seeds were high— itwonld 

 be impossible to produce barley of the quality and 

 colour so indispensable to the brewer. In hazarding 



these remarks, he hoped those who knew so much better 

 than he did would forgive him, although he had himself 

 been a practical farmer since his childhood. To grow 

 fine barley they must not limit themselves to a single 

 white crop. They must rather grow two of these in 

 succession ; taking wheat after turnips, and then their 

 second crop would be the finest quality of barley. A 

 very eminent farmer, a friend of his he had just been 

 passing a few days with, said, * Bass, I tell you what : 

 I try and grow a crop of barley for quantity, and I do 

 grow a quantity, but you never buy it.' The fact was, 

 he should have grown another crop for quality." 



There was some "laughter " at this endeavour to 

 break through the rule of established rotation; but Mr. 

 Bass has some of our best farmers with him. Only two 

 or three years since, at the London Farmers' Club, Mr. 

 Thomas of Lidlington, in a paper on the four-course 

 system, said: — "Let us now suppose that we change 

 the rotation from a four to a five-course; and that it 

 be turnips, wheat, barley, clover, and wheat. Its ad- 

 vantages would be these : in the course of tw enty years 

 it would be found that the four crops of swedes, each 

 at five years' distance from each other, would have pro- 

 duced a greater aggregate amount of food than five 

 crops would have done, each four years distant from 

 the other, and that the bulbs would be much freer from 

 either disease or failure. I then propose to take a crop 

 of wheat as our Scotch brethren almost invariably do ; 

 we know by practice that our ordinary wheats succeed 

 remarkably well when sown after turnips up to the 

 middle of February. We have, then, the Talavera, 

 and other more prolific Spanish wheats, to fal 1 

 back on ; and, lastly, the April wheat, which 

 may be sown with security up to the Ist of May. 

 Next in order to the wheat comes the barley — the pro- 

 scribed act — two white straw crops together. The ex- 

 perience of every one who has tried this tells him that 

 this is the very mode to obtain a fine sample of malt- 

 ing barley ; and, as there appears to be no prospect of 

 a remission of the malt tax, this, to those who culti- 

 vate the grain, is a great object indeed. But 1 do not 

 propose to sow this second white straw crop without 

 bestowing upon the land some nitrogenous manure. I 

 should do it in the form of guano. The idea of grow- 

 ing barley after wheat, or two crops of barley consecu- 

 tively, is not new. In Batchelor's report of Bedford- 

 shire, 1807, he says, ' Barley is a favourite crop 

 towards Biggleswade, and is frequently sown after 

 wheat;' and speaking of another part of the county, 

 he says, ' The large quantity of London and other ma- 

 nure, which is here used, causes the barley to grow 

 too luxuriantly to make it prudent to venture the 

 clover to be sown in the first season. The barley is 

 therefore repeated for that purpose, and with better 

 success." But in much more recent times we find the 

 same course much recommended. In the report for 

 Dorsetshire, published in the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, it is mentioned as becoming 

 universal. In Mr. Caird's report, too, of the fairaing 

 of Lancashire, he is loud in the praise of a Mr. 

 Longton, of Rain Hill, and adds : ' Mr, Longton 



