THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Ill 



by saying, that if a good autumn tiltli is obtained, and 

 the land is then tolerably cleaned, the thing is nearly 

 done ; or if in the early spring the season is favourable, 

 there will be no difficulty in the way. The only requi- 

 site, so far as management is concerned, is in obtaining 

 a fine tilth for the free growth of the smaller seeds of 

 turnips ; but rape will grow luxuriantly in a well- 

 manured soil upon what is commonly called the first 

 furrow, i. e., only once ploughed. Mangel wurzel re- 

 quires a fine tilth to obtain a good plant. Swedes and 

 turnips love a loose well-pulverized soil, as they grow 

 slowly and sickly ; but all this can readily be obtained 

 and provided for, if the required additional power can 

 be brought to bear upon the cultivation. It does not 

 require a summer working to produce a fine tilth— it is 

 power, not time ; and in favourable seasons this fine 

 state of the soil may be realized in a few days. Besides 

 this, the adoption of the ridge system for green crops 

 will give every facility for aeration during the summer : 

 the continuous working can proceed as usual till the 

 crop is too forward to permit the operation of horse- 

 hoeing, &c. The all-important auxiliaries of cleanliness 

 and power are the chief requirements ; secure and 'per- 

 petuate these two auxiliaries, and a new era is 

 established. The idea may be somewhat Utopian, but it 

 is very certain that British agriculture is fast approach- 

 ing this most desirable climax. It is constantly done on. 

 small holdings, or on a small scale everywhere. Market 

 gardeners never cease to crop, and that most heavily. 

 Farmers may constantly crop their lands, if they can 

 effect the same amount of culture. Steam cultivation 



is destined to give this power, this impetus ; the culti- 

 vator has only then to use his best endeavours, and the 

 thing is accomplished. I shall conclude this imperfect 

 paper by again repeating that all must be done with the 

 greatest promptitude and watchfulness : there must be 

 no intermission of effort. Every provision must be 

 made to open a way for the working of the cul- 

 tivating implements, at whatever time the season may 

 prove favourable ; there ought ever to be something 

 ready to work in season, to prepare for the next crop. 

 Uncommon effort and care must be given to eradicate 

 weeds. This constant working will do much — nearly 

 all — that is requisite for this purpose ; if not, the fork, 

 hoe, &c., &c., must be brought into requisition. The 

 whole of this system of power, be it borne in mind, 

 must, after all, be based upon truly good thorough- 

 drainage and open leases : no restrictions as to cropping 

 must interfere. Farms must be let upon improvement 

 tenures, by which I mean the farmer shall be bound to 

 improve his holding, or pay for damages. But of this 

 I do not entertain a doubt the unrestricted unlimited 

 expenditure of power in farm cultivation, which I seek 

 to establish, cannot fail to add fertility to every holding ; 

 nor can the farmer adopt and practise it unless he re- 

 ceives adequate returns in produce for his extra outlay. 

 The question is one of mutual advantage ; the farmer 

 cannot benefit himself alone ; his landlord must partici- 

 pate ; he cannot farm with profit in this way unless his 

 farm is clean: " it is a system of continual and con- 

 tinued cleanliness," 



P. F. 



THE RECENT DISCUSSION ON AUTUMNAL CULIVATION. 



Well done, Mr. Bond ! Whether for matter or style, 

 your paper on " autumnal cultivation," is of rare merit. 

 You are obviously a practical man, thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with the working details of your subject; and 

 wise alike from the observation you have exercised, as 

 from your familiarity with oral field lore and rural 

 aphorisms — the unwritten " calendars of operations" of 

 our venerated ancestry. You sympathize with the labo- 

 rious struggles and clogging difficulties of the strong- 

 land farmer : you greatly respect the manager who, 

 combining the virtue of "patience" with the ability of 

 " expedition" in his husbandry, successfully battles 

 against the subtle and pertinacious enemy, couch- 

 But, informed by study of the principles of tillage, of 

 vegetable growth and other branches of theoretic agri- 

 culture, and conversant with the many examples of 

 hopeful cultivators who have sought to free themselves 

 from slavery to a creeping-rooted grass, you have had 

 enterprize and courage to act upon this knowledge; to 

 break away from the entangling and repressing pre- 

 cepts of traditionary experience, and discover with sa- 

 tisfaction that heavy land may be kept clean by other 

 means than starving out the intruder with a bare fal- 

 low. Then your description of your practice and state- 



ment of results is as clear as your argument is 

 demonstrative ; for not only is the proposed culture so 

 reasonable and evidently well-adapted to the required 

 object, but you infer and elucidate and fortify each 

 step in the process by a reference to facts and princi- 

 ples in agi'icultural science. Without wandering from 

 your subject, you also concentrate for us a great deal of 

 the wisdom of modern husbandry respecting the 

 attributes of mangels and swedes under varying 

 conditions of soil and climate : you utter sound 

 and striking remarks upon the feeding of live 

 stock and the application of manures; and you 

 even appeal to the commercial prospects of our agri- 

 culture, taking a far-sighted view of the future charac- 

 ter of our meat markets, as contrasted with the probable 

 cheapness of a world's grain produce, to urge the im- 

 provement of autumn culture in preparing for root- 

 crops. Your paper abounds, too, with forcible and 

 happy expressions — not without an under-current 

 of humour, that occasionally throws out upon the sur- 

 face of common-sense remark some brisk and beaming 

 wavelet of satire or sai'castic criticism. 



On the present occasion we have no wish to sum up 

 the main points of the paper, or of the discussion which 



