216 Progress of Agricultural K)ioivledge 



Addendum. 



Having had the advantage of seeing in Bedfordshire, since these pages 

 were written, practical examples of some of the points which I have ventured 

 to hring before the Society, I am desirous of shortly mentioning them. On 

 the estate of my friend Mr. Pym, at the Hazells, may be seen the admirable 

 effect of marUng. His neat and productive farm is a light yellow sand, 

 which naturally was covered with heath, as may be seen on a small 

 portion reserved for the beauty of its scenery, which strongly resembles 

 a Highland glen, being not only covered with heath, but also with grey 

 lichen, like the grey moss of trees, — a kind of vegetation which shows 

 a great degree of sterility. The whole farm has been made fertile by 

 means of a dark grey clay, which is full of lime, situated at the foot of 

 the sandy hill, and the moderate dose of GO cart-loads per acre is found 

 to last at least 20 years. On this samhj farm both turnips and swedes 

 were nVZj/e-drilled, and looked remarkably well. In going from the 

 Hazells to the town of Bedford I travelled for ] miles across the valley 

 of the Ouse. Here may be seen on almost every farm admirable crops 

 of swedes, in fields of 40 or 50 acres, without a defective spot of bare earth. 

 The soil is rather a strong loam, upon gravel not unlike the land near 

 Salthill ; and the swedes were ^<r/i!-drilled, not upon ridges. At Bedford 

 I had the pleasure of seeing the county ploughing-match. There were 

 forty ploughs, all upon ivheels, and, though the land was rather strong, all Uvo- 

 horse jiloiujhs. Next morning I was permitted to go over the home-farm of 

 the Duke of Bedford at Woburn. Here are two or three fields of very strong 

 land, which had been thoromjh-drained and also subsoil-ploughed ; which 

 latter operation was thought to have rendered them much lighter to 

 plough. The land, however, is not clay, but marl, a more crumbling sub- 

 stance than clay. But the arable farm in general, which contains 500 

 acres (besides 700 of permanent grass), is a sandy hill, resembling Mr. 

 Pym's, — indeed a continuation of the same low range; and has been 

 dressed with marl in the same manner. One of the fields had not only 

 been covered with heath within a few years, but had been the common 

 turbary of the neighbourhood, so that the surface-soil had been carried 

 off by the poor for fuel. The whole appeared now highly productive. I 

 went over 1 80 acres of root-crops, and I do not remember a single bare spot. 

 The turnips and swedes on this samhj land were grown upon r'lchjes. There 

 were also white carrots, a heavy crop ; and I was particularly glad to see u 

 14-acre piece of globe mangold-wurzel of the most luxuriant; growth, on 

 some newly-broken land indeed, but land which had borne so rank a grass 

 when in park that no animal would touch it ; and it was said that even a 

 Highland Scot, confined to this part of the park, had been starved. Mr. 

 Burness, the Duke's bailiff, informed me that he intended to increase the 

 growth of the globe mangold-wurzel ; and that by his highest farming he 

 could grow 22 tons of swedes, 30 tons of turnips, 36 tons of long mangold, 

 and no less than 40 tons of globe mangold— rating the superior yield of 

 globe mangold over swedes still higher than Mr. Hillyard. Mr. Burness also 



