THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



241 



of thin sharp soil, giving good returns in " dropping years," 

 but easily affected by drought and overworking. 



The buildings on this holding, including water-power 

 mill, were completed by the landlord, and are on the whole 

 commodiou3, though they have required changes at the 

 tenant's expense (witness £52 liJs. Gd. for horse-power 

 machinery to mill) to suit them to his requirements. 



MANAGEMENT. 



The two divisions of 120 acres each are managed on a 

 six-course shift, say— 



1. Grass. 



2. Oats. 



3. Green crop : potatoes, beans, swedes, mangolds. 



4. Wheat. 



5. Turnips. 



6. Barley or wheat : sown out with grass. 



It is a rule to give a heavy farmyard manuring to No. 3 

 of the course, supplemented bj' guano or a mixture of it with 

 dissolved bones. By the aid of composts more or less of No, 

 5 is gone over with manure, and it receives a liberal supply 

 of portable manures in the turnip drills. If wheat follows, 

 that is put down with as much farm manure as can be 

 gathered together in the autumn. 



The terrace or gravel land is managed on a five- course 

 shift— 



J , 2. Grass pastured. 



3. Oats. 



4. Potatoes, or turnips eaten off by sheep. 



5. Barley. 



This is a hungry soil, and swallows up much farmyard 

 manure without making much return for it. Dissolved 

 bones are most relied on for its fructification. 



The above is the general course of management, but some 

 derangement in its rotation has been caused (as will be seen 

 by the acreage cropping previously alluded to) by the prac- 

 tice recently followed of raising some acres of turnip seed on 

 a contract with respectable seedsmen. That practice also 

 involves, to some extent, the curtailment of the live stock, 

 and a consequent increase in the manure account. In other 

 respects I do not think it involves impoverishment of the 

 soil. The land in the end of July is in your hands free of 

 crop ; and that crop, as carried away, has consisted of — say 

 12 cwt. of seed for two years' growth. To restore the con- 

 stituents of that by farmyard or artificial manure is no diffi- 

 cult task. You have the land cleaned and manured before 

 the commencement of harvest work, with the rotation, as it 

 were, at your command, to begin with wheat or whatever 

 other crop you please. I have found it advantageous on 

 clay soil to follow a crop of turnip seed by one of winter 

 beans. These can be sown in early autumn, so as to have 

 well-established roots before winter sets in, and thus they 

 ripen in July or August, and are not troublesome and pre- 

 carious to harvest, as are spring-sown beans in late seasons. 



The portable manures used during 1856 and 1857 con- 

 sisted almost entirely of first-class Peruvian guano, and 

 bones dissolved by myself, in sulphuric acid. The quanti- 

 ties used were — 



1856. 1857. 



Guano— cwt 230 76 



Bones for dissolving — bushels .... 252 668 



It will be seen by this statement that the extravagant price 

 put upon Peruvian guano has much limited my use of it. 

 If sold at £10 to £11 per ton, I would use it to the extent 

 of 4-5ths of my expenditure, as there can be no question 

 that it approaches nearer to a perfect manure — i. e., one 

 available for every crop and every soil— than any other. 



The live stock on the farm as now (October 1858) settled 

 for the winter, consists of— 



13 Cows (crosses). 

 1 Short-horn bull. 



12 Two-year-old cattle for feeding. 



13 One-year-old do. 

 12 Calves of this year. 



90 Ewes and 2 Leicester tups for early lambs to sell off. 

 30 Half-bred lambs to fill up stock. 

 1 Boar and 3 breeding sows, with their last and present 

 litters. 

 About eight acres of turnip will be let for sheep-feeding. 



This is not a paying practice, giving usually less than £6 

 per acre ; but it sweetens and improves the ground when 

 practised once in each second rotation, i. e,, in each ten or 

 twelve years. 



The labour is performed by the following permanent ser- 

 vants, viz, : — 



Two working grieves. 



Five ploughmen. 



Three lads for cattle and sheep. 



Extra male labourers are employed as required about 

 ditches, dungheaps, and composts. Women workers do the 

 green crop and barn work under the grieve'* supervision, 

 and also the principal part of the harvest work, which is all 

 done by the sickle, except the oats, which are cut by the 

 scythe. 



The men have cottages, each of at least two rooms, on the 

 farms. They are on yearly engagements, and, calculating 

 the provisions they receive at wholesale prices, they receive, 

 including their money wages, but exclusive of rent on their 

 houses, £28 per each ploughman ; the grieves, of course, re- 

 ceive considerably more. The boys are fed in the kitchen. 



Five pairs of horses are employed — five mares and five 

 geldings. These perform all the tillage of the farm, and 

 also the delivery of the grain and potatoes grown, the larger 

 portion of which — say, at least, two thirds — are delivered at 

 a distance of 1 1 miles from the steading, being the nearest 

 seaport and railway station. A horse for riding and driving 

 is, of course, kept, as part of the business equipment of the 

 farm. I have been unfortunate in rearing young horses, 

 and I believe chiefly from the cause that the stud-horses 

 travelling in the district are overtasked with mares. It 

 will be observed that a considerable sum (£98 15s., which is 

 after deduction of old horses sold off) is charged for horses 

 purchased ; and but one young horse is rearing up on the 

 farm. 



I have thus given, in accordance with the requirements of 

 the Society, a full description of the farm, and described 

 the system on which it has been managed and cultivated, 

 and the improvements effected ; stated the expenditure and 

 returns ; and explained the mode of accounting. 



I am further instructed by the Society's Premium List 

 " to consider how much extra or imported manure is 

 required to maintain in high condition a farm of 300 acres 

 cultivated on a four-course shift, when potatoes forming one- 

 half of the green crops and the grass made into hay are 

 both sold off the farm." 



Before giving a reply to the question thus put, I would 

 observe that the course of cropping pointed out — namely, a 

 four-course shift— is by no means the best that could be 

 adopted for the development of high or even good farming. 

 It gives but one cleaning in four years to the land— one 

 manuring also. It likewise brings the grass crops into such 

 close proximity to each other that the red clover, the suc- 

 cessful growth of which is, if not indispensable, at any rate 

 highly conducive to the fruitfulness of the soil during the 

 rotation, has but small chance of succeeding. Moreover, 

 the two cereals, wheat and oats, will not, manure and culti- 

 vate as we mav, give their full produce when revolving in 

 such a close and narrow round. The course of cropping 

 pointed out would appear as if intended to meet the case of 

 close proximity to a town or city, where town manure can 

 readily be obtained by purchase, and a high price got for 

 early potatoes and for cutting grass and hay ; but I believe 

 that this is precisely the situation in which the cultivation 

 of green crops should preponderate. They are, in such a 

 situation, considerably more money-producing than grain 

 crops ; and though these are also necessary, I conceive that 

 in such districts coyn crops should be grown io facilitate the 

 growth of green ones; as in more distant districts green 

 crops are grown preparatory to grain ones. 



The rotation I would consider most appropriate for such 

 a situation is a five-course shift of this nature :— 



1. Turnips, swedes and yellows, and mangold. 



2. Potatoes. 



3. Wheat. 



4. Clover-grass. 



5. Oats. 



Or, viewing the facilities in such a district for the disposal 

 of dairy produce and of early lambs, I would be inclined to 



