Time of Entry on Farms. 313 



whereon the couch is encouraged to grow as late keep for his 

 flock, by whose dung it, in turn, is fostered to be the pest of 

 future cultivators ! How much more tidy, as more profitable, is 

 it to have the stubbles pared and burnt immediately upon the 

 removal of the corn ; the surface knocked about with heavy 

 harrows, the ashjss covered, and a crop of white turnips drilled in 

 with 2 to 3 cwt. of superphosphate per acre, to be eaten on the ^ 

 ground ; or, at least, they may be ploughed in preparation for 

 turnips the next spring, and this, on light soils, is no mean gain; 

 for to work a light soil to its proper fineness of tiltli wholly 

 during the spring is found to deprive the land of its due mois- 

 ture, and so render it unfavourable to the growth of the turnip- 

 braird ; whereas, if it be worked in autumn there is secured an 

 abundance of moisture. 



This theory gains great support from the almost universal 

 complaint of the Suffolk light-soil farmer against a clause usually 

 entered in the leases of that county, which obliges him to work 

 his land five times over, even though "it be a blowing sand," 

 when one turning over is found by unfettered tenants ample, and 

 productive of crops, the very semblance of which cannot, under 

 the other system, be attained. 



If a dairy form any part of the new tenant's scheme of opera- 

 tions, it will be of vast service to him to be able to put a 

 dressing of bone-dust on his pastures in time to be covered over 

 by the late growth of the year ; so wonderfully does this manure 

 conduce to the improvement in quantity and quality of the dairy 

 produce ; its effects, when once apparent, being found to last 

 seven, fifteen, to twenty years, though not immediately percep- 

 tible ; it is advisable, for the sake of an earlier return, to apply 

 the dressing at the earliest possible period. 



Again, by ploughing for himself, instead of paying the out- 

 going tenant for his work, the young farmer will save at least 

 what, in butchers' language, we may term " the fifth quarter ;" 

 for that a profit is looked for, and not merely the cost price, is 

 certainly the rule. 



II.— The Crops. 



There is, in the second place, a great advantage in the new 

 tenant having his own arrangement of the crops upon the farm 

 for the ensuinq: year. It may suit his purpose or his fancy better 

 to adopt a different course to that adopted by his predecessor, — a 

 subject admitting of so great a diversity of opinion now in these 

 days of chemical analysis and artificial manures. We presume 

 him, of course, as every enterprising farmer should be, unfettered 



