12 Farming of Bedfordshire. 



portion of the field. It is ti'ue they were short lived, but they 

 lived long enough to poison the plants, for very few made further 

 progress. 



Most jnobahlc cause of Disease. — In Norfolk, whenever turnips 

 anberry, which is frequently the case upon very loose light land, 

 the farmer concludes that the land must be clayed. But in Bedford- 

 shire the thing occurs on many of the very best gravelly loams 

 of the county, and has done so more or less for some few years 

 past. That it is not the result of atmospheric influence is 

 evident, for in a field, near Bedford, I recently saw, up to a given 

 point in the same field, a part wretchedly diseased, while those 

 adjoining had pretty well escaped. It turned out on inquiry that 

 when the field was last in turnips the part which had now 

 escaped was in mangold-wurzel. It appears, therefore, tolerably 

 certain that land may not only become " clover-sick " (as it is 

 termed), but turnip-sick too ! It would seem that the too fre- 

 quent repetition of turnips, if not the chief cause, at least 

 favours the disease. 



The case above cited is only one out of many illustrations that 

 might be given ; and the exemption from disease on the chalky 

 soils is a still further corroboration, for in that division of the 

 county the turnips come less frequently, because the farmers 

 generally adopt the five rather than the four course system of 

 cropping. It becomes therefore a grave consideration, whether 

 the restriction to the four-course system in many leases and agree- 

 ments, should not, for the public benefit, undergo some modifica- 

 tion, more especially as regards the better land of the county. 

 For, what is the use of chemistry, or the discovery of valuable 

 artiticial manures, in such cases ? The best farmers, by their 

 common management on these lands, can and do keep up the 

 condition of their farms to the growth almost of as heavy crops 

 as the land can bear. Moreover, if the fourth part of all such 

 farms are, ad iiifinitum, to bs left in fallow, or a green crop, and 

 not an acre more corn to be grown, how are the wants of our 

 increasing population to be met? Surely these leases and agree- 

 ments are, some of them, an impediment to progress and a clog 

 upon the wheels of agriculture. They tend to retard, when they 

 ought to promote, improvement. 



As our instructions require us to suggest any changes that 

 are needed, the better to cari-y out the objects of the Society, 

 I shall not be travelling out of the record by saying that the 

 reconstruction of the covenants of many farm leases is impe- 

 ratively called for. Meanwhile, I would also suggest that a lair 

 representation of the case should be made to the landlords ; and 

 that, pending this, the system be changed on the turnip fallows, 

 dividing them into three compartments — mangold-wurzel, turnips. 



