312 Time of Entry on Farms. 



Upon the whole, however, we decide in favour of the superior 

 advantages of entering in Autumn rather than in Spring, and for 

 the following reasons. 



I. — Autumnal Cultivation. 



Because, in the first place, the in-coming tenant can secure that 

 due culture of the land he has taken at the decline of the jear, 

 which is so strongly advocated by Mr. Pusey, and is becoming 

 one of the most important questions of agriculture ; to which is 

 due the diminishing of the cost of the turnip-fallow, and the 

 introduction of supplementary crops in our rotation, after the 

 example of the indefatigable and thrifty Flemish farmer. He 

 can be sure of the good treatment his land has received, in the 

 way of being prepared by deep ploughing for the beneficial 

 influence of the frosts ; in being also fairly manured, instead of 

 his having to accept the account, often so unfairly made up by 

 the outgoing tenant : as for instance, there are cases when 100 

 loads of manure have been sometimes charged for which should 

 rather have been 25, — dishonest conduct, of which there is too 

 often no evidence to convict the offender. In some counties 

 this knavery has attained to such a pitch that there are men who 

 make it a business to take a farm for the sake (in the language 

 of Surrey) of " working it up to a quitting," and clearing a good 

 balance on their removal to another holding. 



By entering in the autumn, the new tenant has moreover the 

 opportunity of adopting that eminently successful plan of im- 

 proved agriculture, the laying the manure upon the young seeds, 

 — a practice which his predecessor might not have chosen or 

 thought fit to adopt. This, as much else most expedient for the 

 successful treatment of land, the outgoer would find himself too 

 much occupied to attend to, as there is a hurry at the last, even 

 if he were inclined to do it. He has thus too the advantage of 

 being able to plough the stubbles up directly after harvest, and of 

 thoroughly exterminating those insidious sprigs and joints of 

 couch-grass, which spread and strengthen rapidly when the crop 

 that previously oppressed their growth is gathered. 



" Do you hoe your crops much by horse or hand in the 

 spring ? " we remember once asking one of the most successful 

 and neatest farmers in the United Kingdom. " Neither," was 

 the reply ; " I clean-pick the fallow so thoroughly in autumn 

 that 1 have no weeds in spring, and a harrowing sufficiently 

 stirs the soil and lets in the air ; while much valuable time is 

 saved at an important season." What a melancholy sight is the 

 green stubble, so fondly patronised by the old-fashioned farmer, 



