THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



219 



ably precedes the turnip crop. The other rotation 

 is one so peculiar to this district that it will pro- 

 bably be of more interest. It is as follows : First year, 

 wheat ; second year, barley ; third year, half clover 

 and rye grass, and half rye or vetches, followed 

 by swedes or late turnips ; fourth year, half old field, or 

 old ley, and half forward turnips or rape. The half of 

 the barley land, which is sown off to clover and rye 

 grass, is mown for hay in the ensuing year, is fed 

 through the autumn, and a moiety is then covered with 

 long fresh straw or dung, and the sheep stock is penned 

 upon this in the latter end of November and the early 

 part of December, as soon as the folding for wheat is 

 completed. The food which supports the sheep through 

 this period, except in the event of an unusual crop of 

 turnips, is hay supplied to them night and morning, and 

 a spread or run over the downs for a few hours in the 

 day, when they go for water. The average folding is 

 about one and a- half sheep to a square hurdle, or thirty- 

 six square feet, which is equal to about 1,860 sheep per 

 acre per night. When the fold has passed over the land, 

 it is either raftered or fallowed, and, after a cross- 

 ploughing in March, is in capital condition for early 

 turnips or rape preceding the wheat crop. The 

 other moiety, of old field, is reserved for feeding 

 about the first week in May, when the sheep leave the 

 meadows. It is subsequently dunged and folded, and 

 either planted to turnips or rape, or ploughed up, and 

 the sheep folded upon the fallows, to consolidate them 

 previous to the sowing of the wheat. The wheat crop, 

 after both these systems of management, is usually very 

 good. Let us now return to that portion of the barley 

 field where no rye grass or clover was sown. In the 

 early autumn it is sown with vetches, which are con- 

 sumed on the land in the June and July of the next 

 summer ; thereafter swedes or turnips are drilled in, 

 which stand over for feed until any period in the spring 

 which may be most convenient, and frequently it 

 happens where the meadows are early that the sheep can 

 be penned on swedes or turnips. The land is then 

 dunged from our yards, or from heaps which have been 

 carted to the fields during the winter, and, with the 

 addition of superphosphate, is drilled with early turnips, 

 or rape, preceding the wheat crop. A modification of 

 this latter system sometimes occurs by the substitution 

 of a five for a four-field course, when a turnip crop in- 

 tervenes between the wheat and barley, or the land, or 

 a proportion, is sown with the barley to sainfoin, in 

 which crop it remains for three years. The peculiarity 

 of the second system just described consists chiefly in 

 the sowing of barley after wheat, a custom so well 

 known and appreciated in Wiltshire, and which has 

 there stood the test of so much practice, that it is only 

 to an audience of comparative strangers that anything 

 like a defence of a rotation so apparently old-fashioned 

 need be offered. Its application over a fair proportion 

 of the medium arable land of this district is advantageous 

 for the following reasons : First, it enables the farmer 

 to sow his barley over a large area early, and with very 

 little labour of tillage ; secondly, the quality of the 

 barley so grown is uniformly superior to that grown 

 after turnips ; thirdly, if the management for wheat has 

 been what it should be, the bulk and quantity of corn 

 grown are generally satisfactory, and, on an average of 

 years, will quite compete with that grown after turnips, 

 which latter is frequently injured through its late 

 sowing ; fourthly, it affords an excellent opportunity of 

 cleansing the land — a process, with our system of fre- 

 quent catchcrops, often troublesome and inconvenient to 

 accomplish before turuips. The other leading points of this 

 system are the large quantity of green food which is cheaply 

 produced under it, and the admirable facility afforded for the 

 consumption of such food at any period consistent with the 

 farmer's convenience. Another advantage, not to be lost sight 



of, JB that a forced and wasteful application of the turnips, for 

 fear of losing the seasou for sowing barley, is avoided ; nor, 

 however thickly the sheep may be penned, is there any danger 

 of thereby injuring the succeeding crop of turnips. It leads, 

 moreover, to a more equable distribution of the horse labour 

 throughout the year. The folding of the ewes on the old field, 

 to which reference has been made, and the system of folding 

 generally, may be regarded as peculiar to this district, and it 

 may well happen that, in some measure, the system is attribu- 

 table to the increased quantity of hay grown on a farm having 

 a fair proportion of water meadow. It is practically a folding 

 out of meadow during the winter with the produce of the 

 summer growth ; and taking the data supplied by Mr. Combes 

 as to the area folded per acre from water-meadow, and charging 

 the increased bulk of hay in excess of the spring feed against 

 the cost of its manufacture and carriage, it may be assumed 

 that its value as manure is quite equal to that of the spring 

 fold, which is usually valued at 258. to 30s. per acre. There 

 is this further value in the summer produce when in the form 

 of hay, that it is applicable to any period and locality. On 

 farms where there are no water-meadows, the useful and beau- 

 tiful sainfoin comes in to supply in great measure their absence. 

 That it does supply such want is a recognised axiom ; and 

 although it cannot furnish in March or April the luxuriant 

 herbage which then clothes our meadows, yet in the form of 

 hay it contributes largely to the health and well-being of the 

 stock. The proportion of land devoted to sainfoin in this dis- 

 trict, on farms with a fair share of water-meadow, is about 10 

 per cent, on the area of arable land; where they are absent, it 

 is about 15 to 18 per cent. He then gave a few statistics of 

 the produce and mortality of the flocks, observing that a pre- 

 judice existed in favour of the present system with regard to 

 sheep ; but the following statement indicated a larger mortality, 

 with a proportionately smaller produce, than was obtained 

 from any other district or breed, the statistics of which are 

 known. From a census taken on the 4th of May, during five 

 consecutive years, it appears that the average produce of 

 10,600 ewes, in a district within a radius of ten miles of Salis- 

 bury, was 89 per cent, of lambs. The average mor- 

 tality of ewes from Oct. 10th to May 4th was 

 4.85 per cegt The average mortality of ewe tegs, 

 or hoggets, derived from the same district, and during 

 the same period, was 2.75 per cent. It is believed 

 that the conditions under which these numbers were obtained 

 fairly represent the general circumstances of the flocks of the 

 southern portion of this county. Mr. Squarry next proceeded 

 to observe that how far these lamentable circumstances may 

 arise from the largeness of the flocks, from the system of folding, 

 or from occasional irregularity of keep, are questions worthy 

 of the deepest consideration ; and it may well be that the 

 recognition of the general fact may tend to a mitigation 

 of the evil, by public attention being directed to 

 this point. He then concluded as follows : — The 

 subject which has been so imperfectly treated* aff'ords a 

 striking illustration of the power which man possesses to shape 

 the form of external nature for his own advantage. If left to 

 pursue their own course through the flat and gradually- 

 widened valleys of this district, the pure streams would pro- 

 bably divide themselves into innumerable rivulets, flowing 

 under the broad leaves of water plants, or winding lazily 

 through a growth of rushy herbage, and forming over large 

 spaces, and, at no distant intervals, shallow marshes, in which 

 miasma would find a constant home. Warned by such cir- 

 cumstances, the inhabitants of the locality would probably 

 abandon the shelter of the valleys, and fix their less conve- 

 nient but healthier residences on the elevations of the hills. 

 In contrast with this picture it is instructive to glance at the 

 present position of the valleys, which lie around the city in 

 long green lines of radiation. So far from being deserted by 

 mankind, they are the principal seats of a vigorous population. 

 The parish churches lie at short intervals in the midst, or on 

 the very margin of the valleys, forming the links of a con- 

 tinuous chain of villages from the springhead to the mouth of 

 the river. The mansions of the aristocracy, the comfortable 

 residences of those who farm the land, and the cottages of the 

 labourer are scattered over this surface, of perennial verdure ; 

 whilst the waters themselves, and the magnificent tree vegeta- 

 tion, which results from the improved character of the soil, 

 contribute frequently to the scene an aspect of beauty rarely 

 surpassed in other counties. All this is referable to a conver- 

 sion of a water naturally disposed to stagnate and permeate 



