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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



for the wants of the commuaity in the articles of pork 

 and bacon, the most substantial and most common of 

 our animal food. I again repeat, it is ours to provide 

 a cheap and nutritious food for the country ; and I 



venture to sav that the cheapest and best for the bulk of 

 the people is pork and bacon. I want to make it so 

 plentiful that every family shall have enough, and at a 

 rate satisfactory alike to the producer and consumer. 



WILL THE SOIL GROW TWO CROPS AT ONCE? 



In proposing the above question, I wish to guard 

 my bi-other-farmers against the adoption of any Uto- 

 pian scheme that may arise in their minds from any 

 question I have asked, or any facts I have or may 

 adduce. Farmers love to try experiments, new courses, 

 and new plans ; the nature of their business admits of 

 it. " I shall try so-and-so this year ; Mr. A. tried it 

 last, and likes it very well," says one. " My crop of 



did not answer last year ; I don't try that 



again," says another. " Mr. B. has wheat every year ; 

 I shall try a little next year," says a third. " Mr. 



C. grows beans and carrots together profitably in alter- 

 nate rows J /mean to try that," says a fourth. " Mr. 



D. grows peas and turnips in alternate rows, the tur- 

 nips coming into perfection as the peas are removed ; 

 this plan I shall try," says a fifth. " Mr. E. grows 

 beans and mangolds satisfactorily at the same time, also 

 in alternate rows; this /think very good, and /mean 

 to try tliis system,'' says a sixth. And thus continu- 

 ally are our good easy furmers led into unwary courses, 

 often ending in great loss, dissatisfaction, and disap- 

 pointment. These plans may be all right and proper 

 under certain managements and circumstances ; but 

 it is not because Mr. A. succeeds that Mr. B. is equally 

 certain of success. Mr. A. has studied the subject 

 in theory, and has adopted the practice necessary 

 to secure his crops, hence his success. Mr. B. must 

 either do the same, or depend upon his neighbour Mr. 

 A. for his aid and advice how to proceed and act under 

 it, or he will fail. Nothing of this novel kind must be 

 undertaken at haphazard. There must be careful pre- 

 paration and a knowledge of what the soil and crop 

 require, and how to supply it, before the thing should 

 be undertaken. I by no means urge the adoption of 

 any of the courses intimated by the questions I have 

 asked in this and preceding papers. What is required 

 is practical information, which I trust the readers of 

 the Mark Lane Express will supply. 



I will again give a few facts as to these double crops ; 

 at the same time I decline offering any opinion as 

 to their utility or profit ; they are plain and simple 

 facts. Mr. Bravender, in the eleventh volume of tlie 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 

 page 427, describes the course pursued with a double 

 crop on Lord Bathurst's farm at Cirencester : " The 

 beans (winter beans) were drilled in double rows, with 

 an interval of three feet. In the spring the mangold 

 •was planted between the double rows in the centre of 

 the wide space left. At harvest the wurzel was very 

 regular, but not so large in bulb as those planted 

 without beans ; but on the beans being removed the 

 •wurzel grew very rapidly, and when removed for 

 storing were little inferior in weight to those where 7io 

 beans had been planted." 



Mr. Chas. Hannam, in the R. A. S. Journal, vol. vii. 

 page 589, gives the details of several crops of peas and 

 turnips. The peas being drilled in rows 12 to the rod 

 wide, and as soon as finally hoed the turnips are drilled 

 in between the rows. In all cases he had good crops 

 of turnips and satisfactory crops of peas. The peas 

 were the early varieties. 



Mr. John Thompson, in the R. A. S. Journal, vol. xii. 

 part 2nd, page 681, gives an account of some double 



root crops, i. e., crops of mangolds and carrots, drilled 

 in alternate ridges of 24 inches apart. The result was, 

 that in each case the yield of mangolds was greater 

 than in the continuous rows, and the carrots produced 

 eight tons per acre. Tried several times. 



The Rev. Thos. Bui-roughs, in the R. A. S. Journal, 

 vol. xiv. part 2nd, page 425, says : " My plan consists 

 of having two rows of winter beans about seven inches 

 apart, and these a yard interval, in the middle of 

 which is a single row of turnips; the average produce 

 of the former, during five years, has been a little over 

 three quarters per acre ; and the latter has been a 

 full half-crop, with both bulbs and leaves of a large 

 size. The soil silicious, commonly called red land. 

 Occasionally cabbages or coleseed were substituted, the 

 result not so good. The spring crops, as above, were 

 put in after the beans had received their various and 

 requisite horse hoeings, and other weedings, &c. Many 

 other instances of this double cropping might be ad- 

 duced from both published and private sources ; but as 

 the " Journals" are open to all, I have so far abided 

 by them. One, however, I may be excused for siving, 

 although of a somewhat private character. It is from 

 the Rev. S. Smith, of Lois Weedon, a name well known 

 in the agricultural world, and who is doing signal 

 service to agriculture by pioneering in a course of 

 culture peculiarly his own. By his system (a revival 

 in a certain sense of Tull's alternate culture) he has 

 succeeded in obtaining an annual average product of 

 wheat, during thirteen years, of 35 bushels 2 pecks per 

 acre from poor clay land, and that without an ounce 

 of manure — a success worthy extensive imitation. Mr. 

 Smith grows winter beans at the extravagant width of 

 five feet apart in the rows, and with a thin seeding; 

 they branch so thickly and widely as to meet across 

 the intervals, and in ordinary seasons are podded from 

 top to bottom. " It ali;i'\st transcends belief that, in 

 spite of such wide spacco of ground left unoccupied 

 between the rows, the produce one year was seven qrs. 

 per acre. But having witnessed the rows in June 

 nearly touching across the intervals, and counting 35 

 to 55 pods on single stalks, we can readily acquiesce in 

 the accuracy of the measure stated. Last year (1857) 

 the yield was 50^ bushels, and the beans were a first- 

 rate sample. In 185G the produce was 38 bushels per 

 acre. But the intervals are not wasted, for the beans 

 ripen in time to admit an interlining root crop to perfect 

 its bulbs ; and from the same acre of land which pro- 

 duced the oOJ bushels of beans were taken eight or 

 nine tons of red carrots, and the bean crop of 1856 

 yielding 38 bushels gave also a fine crop of about 14 

 tons of cai-rots." 



In 1858 Mr. Smith writes :— " My winter beans, in 

 single rows five feet apart, yield, by measurement, five 

 qrs. to the acre, with an interlining light crop of 

 carrots. By the expression, five qrs. to the acre, I 

 mean, the whole superficial acre, including the fallow 

 intervals." Mr. Smith also takes double root crops. 

 His mangels ai-e put-in in rows five feet apart, and the 

 middle of the interval has a row of carrots : in this way 

 he obtains 24 tons of red mangels and 16 tons of 

 carrots, i. e., 40 tons of roots. P. F. 



