316 Time of Entry on Farms. 



get a crop of hybrid turnips off the land, be the season ever so 

 favourable. 



There are few farms deserted, or from which the tenant is 

 removed, where you will not find that some land, at least, re- 

 quires, as is the phrase of Yorkshire, to be "boned and bled : " 

 that is, to be drained, and afterwards have a dressing of crushed 

 bones at the rate of about 2 tons an acre, — an operation that 

 answers infinitely better when the autumnal growth gathers on 

 the deposited manure — and which thus improved will afFurd keep 

 for an additional cow to every four acres. 



To quote Mr. Caird : — 



" The best time for laying on this manure is in autumn, early enough to 

 admit of a fresh growth of grass to cover it before winter. On seeds which 

 are intended for permanent pasture, it should be laid on after harvest. Its 

 efiect is to cover the ground thiclcly with clover, trefoil, and succulent grasses, 

 in lieu of the thinly planted and very iniuitritious pink pointed grass which 

 previously occupied the soil. Some farmers told us that it had doubled the 

 produce and improved the quality of their cheese." 



VII. — Scouring Ditches. 



There is profit, again, in the young farmer being able to have 

 the ditches properly scoured, instead of their being half done by 

 the outgoing tenant, or left altogether, from stress of work, till 

 the second year of his occupation. 



Pools may be emptied and repaired on farms where water in 

 summer would be scarce ; and tliis — considering how foul such 

 watering-places are allowed to become by a careless tenant, 

 either from carrion being thrown in, or from the fall of decayed 

 leaves (especially the deleterious leaf of the ash-tree}, from 

 the cattle standing and scouring in them, or from the yard-drainage 

 having an outlet into them — is a matter of no mean import. 

 Many are the disorders of cattle and horses which arise from their 

 being allowed to drink at pools of this description. Farmers 

 often argue that their cattle and horses ■prefer such a mixture to 

 the clearest river or pond-water : in fact, because it is grateful to 

 their stomachs, disordered by bad food and treatment ; just as 

 vou will often see a horse eat soil at the hedge-side. Change 

 their food, put rock-salt in the manger, and, if necessary, give 

 medicine. You will no longer find tliat they prefer to fill them- 

 selves at the pool on the lov/est side of the farm-yard, into which 

 the dung-juice drains. The poultry- fancier knows that on the 

 purity of the water supplied to them depend the health and 

 plumage of his stock. It is as well that farmers too should know 

 that starine: coats and broken wind are the certain ultimate conse- 



