THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



537 



triple-rowed wheat, the wide intervals being dug by 

 spade one spit deep, bringing up to the surface only a 

 few inches of yellow clay subsoil. The second year, 

 these well-stirred and horse-hoed intervals bore the 

 three-row stripes of wheat, and the stubble-row stripes 

 were dug in ; and so on, fallow intervals and wheat rows 

 succeeding one another alternately. In the third and 

 fourth years the spade went down a little deeper ; and 

 so, gradually and regularly for four years more, till a 

 depth of 16 or 18 inches was reached. Mr. Smith then 

 cultivated for the next four years with only single-spit 

 digging, and in 1858 again returned to the trenching 

 two spits deep with a fresh inch of clay. Conscious, 

 however, that the spade must always be an implement 

 of limited and expensive use, Mr. Smith has been for 

 some years labouring to improve the digging-machine, 

 or rotary forker, and has now succeeded in his invention 

 of a digger, which, drawn with wire rope by Mr. 

 Fowler's horse-power capstan, or his steam-engine and 

 windlass, perfectly inverts the soil, throwing the uplifted 

 subsoil on the top. Preparatory to working it, the 

 stubble is pared and burnt ; then comes the digger, with 

 three subsoil tines on the same frame, going before the 

 digger, and loosening the stubborn soil to the full depth 

 required. The revolving tines raise the whole stratum 

 in spits, which are cast off behind in an inverted posture 

 by a rotating clearer or beater, the breadth taken being 

 22 inches. As a stirring implement in the summer sea- 

 son its action is perfect. The average annual expenses 

 per acre are — 



• £ s. d. 



Digging and cleaning the moiety of each acre . . 114 

 Horae-noeing ditto three times, 63.; plouf'hing, 4s. 10 



Hoeing and handweeding 5 



Rolling with crusher at seed-time, and at spring Is. 3 



Two pecks of seed, 2s. 6d.; dibbling, 5s 7 C 



Bird-keeping.... 4 



Earthing up wheat 3 



Reaping, &c., to thrashing and marketing 



Rent— say, £2 ; rates and taxes, 4s. 3d 



£7 3 9 

 To this should be added something for interest, in- 

 surance, &c. ; so that the total outlay may be taken at 

 £1 lOs. per acre. The digging machine will, of 

 course, enable the work to be done much more 

 cheaply. What has been the produce ? The ave- 

 rage of the first eight years, beginning with the 

 harvest of 1847, was fully 34 bushels per acre ; in 185.5^ 

 the yield was 40 bushels; in 1856,37 bushels; in 

 1857, 36 bushels; in 1858, upwards of 40 bushels; and 

 in 1859, the last harvest gave 38 bushels. The general 

 average for the thirteen years is SS^ bushels per acre. 

 The quality of the grain is so good, that Mr. Smith has 

 usually made the highest red wheat price of his market ; 

 and this fact is thus accounted for : The straw grows 

 stout and stiff, owing to the free access of air and light 

 from the ear down to the very base of every stem ; and 

 just before flowering-time, the rows are lightly earthed- 

 up with the plough mould-board. A good deal of the 

 straw of last year's crop was upwards of 6 feet high, 

 yet none of it laid; though all other bulky crops in 

 the neighbourhood (fed by guano or otherwise), wore 



either wholly or partially beaten down and damaged by 

 the rains. The average amount of straw has been about 

 li tons per acre; and must be reckoned as part of the 

 realized produce, because it is never returned to the 

 land. At 40s. per quarter the returns will be 



35^ bushels at 53 £8 17 6 + 1^ tons of straw. 



Deduct outlay .... 7 10 



Clear profit per acre £1 7 G + 1^- tons of straw. 

 Mr. Smith's straw is worth £2 per ton to him ; and 

 consequently, his net proceeds must be £\ 7s. fid. an 

 acre at the present low prices. And when wheat was at 

 56s. a qr., his net gain was no less than £7 ISs. 6d. per 

 acre. But ifyou choose to put the straw at 10s. a ton, the 

 profit (with wheat at 40s.) is still £2 2s. 6d. an acre. 

 The question now arises, what is the present condition of 

 the land, after this flogging course of cropping, of wheat 

 after wheat thirteen years in succession.' Well, the 

 proof is in the produce ; the average of the first eight 

 years was fully 34 bushels, but the average of the sue - 

 ceeding five years has been fully 38 bushels — that is, the 

 land yields a coomb an acre more than it did. The light- 

 land field, with its one dressing of clay, continues (at 

 the ninth year of experiment) to maintain its average 

 yield of 34 bushels. Mr. Smith has favourded me with 



the following letter : — 



" AprU 2ud, 1860. 



"Dear Sir, — You aak me for any further iuformation I 

 may have to communicate with reference to my wheat- 

 growing, beyond what I have already made public. 



" At the begiuniug of last winter occurred a curious circum- 

 stance, which permits me to go somewhat deeper still into 

 certain details of some importance in elucidating the subject. 

 The circumstance I refer to waa the insertion of a letter in the 

 Mark Lane Express, which ran thua : ' Sir, — I observed iu 

 your paper last week that the Rev. Mr. Smith eatimated his 

 wheat crop this year at 35 buahela, at 78., or £12 Ss. per acre. 

 In returning from the Warwick Meeting last July with two 

 friends, we visited Lois Weedon, and we saw the worst crop 

 of wheat I have seen this year. We estimated the produce ac 

 15 bushels per acre; and putting the price at 5i. per buahel, 

 the amount, instead of being £12 5b, will be £3 ISs. per acre. 

 As such statements are Hkely to mislead your numerous 

 readers, by inserting these few lines in the J\fark Lane 

 Express you will much oblige, your obedient servant, A 

 Hertfoudshire Farmer.' 



" Now, with regard to the estimate and value which others 

 might have put upon my last year's wheat crop, I have, of 

 course, nothing whatever to do. What 1 said myself in the 

 last edition of the Word in Season to the Farmer, published in 

 November, was this : After repeating what I had stated in 

 the former edition, that I should only report in future on the 

 wheat crops grown on the heavy wheat laud — the li^ht land 

 being withdrawn from the public for private experiments — and 

 that the yield for 1858 waa upwards of 40 bushels of fine red 

 wheat, I said that ' the crop 0/ Ike present year (1859), 7iot 

 yet thrashed, was exceedimjly fine; not merely bulky, and 

 large in the ear, but unusually heavy in the sheaf, and at 

 reaping loas estimated at 40 bushels at the least,' 



"■ I replied to the ' Hertfordshire Farmer ' as follows :— ' It 

 is always a hazardous thing to estimate a crop of wheat before 

 thrashing. I certainly looked this season for more than 40 

 bushels to the acre ; and I did so, not merely because the crop 

 waa so bulky and large in the ear, but from the weight of the 

 sheaves at reaping. Unexpectedly tempted, however, by the 

 frost to thrash in the open, I found the actual produce of my 

 three acres to be fourteen quarters two bushels and a-half, 

 being about 38 bushels to the moiety of each acre. I call it 

 the moiety of each acre, for so it literally and actually is. For 

 a full acre of wheat iu 10-inch rows contains, we will say, 120 

 rows. Take away, then, every alternate three rows, and you 

 have the Lois- Weedon fallow, and only 60 rows, being the 

 actual moiety of an acre of wheat. I am much indebted to 

 tlidt one day's well-timed frost; for otherwise months might 



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