Farming of Bedfordshire. ^3 



cessful, the annual meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 for the last ten or twelve years afford the most ample corrobora- 

 tion of the statement. The Bedfordshire harrows and drill are 

 scarcely in less repute ; the latter more particularly where straight 

 drilling is at all appreciated. Mr. Hensman, of Woburn, is now 

 the manufacturer of the drill, as also of a good steam thrashing- 

 machine. 



The late Mr. James Bachelor, brother to the author of 

 'Bachelor's Survey,' was, however, I believe, the first inventor 

 of the Bedfordshire steerage lever drill, and for many years was 

 a very ingenious tenant upon the Bedford estate. 



The corn in this county is nearly all drilled, excepting a few 

 beans and a little wheat, which here and there are put in with the 

 double dibble. 



The hoeing of all corn (except wheat) is considered good hus- 

 bandry ; but farmers of most experience will not hoe that crop 

 unless the quantity of weeds renders it imperative. 



Our farmers have not yet attained to great uniformity in the 

 mode of harvesting their corn. Some still reap all their wheat, 

 and others only their heavier crops, mowing and tying the rest, 

 as also their general spring crops, but the latter are not generally 

 put into sheaf; to do so is, at any rate, rather the exception than 

 the rule. 



They generally use one-horse carts in carrying their corn, and 

 insist that, unless the distance be considerable and roads bad, 

 they can do it more expeditiously than by the use of waggons. 

 The ancient practice was to bring all the corn home, however far 

 from the homestead. Of late they stack more at large. In 

 many parts of the kingdom the more modern system is to stack 

 the corn where grown ; but this in our judgment is a system as 

 far from the correct one as that of cramming every stack into the 

 stackyard. The better practice is, we suggest, to bring the great 

 body of the corn into three or four distinct groups of stacks, 

 within a very easy distance of where the straw has to be consumed. 



This brings us to the question of 



The best mode of Thrashing. — The practice in Beds, previous 

 to the use of steam, was to move every stack into barn before 

 thrashing it, but of late some few of our farmers have adopted 

 the Norfolk system of stacking anywhere, and thrashing the stack 

 at the same place, which we hold to be a wasteful system. And 

 for these reasons. First. If the straw is ultimately to go to the 

 farm premises, to be made into manure, it cannot be moved so 

 cleanly and easily as when in the sheaf. Besides, it is a difficult 

 task to clear up and move all the offal when broken into frag- 

 ments, and it is often left to be cleaned up at some less busy 

 season, which frequently does not arrive till the offal becomes 



