Report on Spring-sown Wheats in 1873. 83 



following reports. Almost invariably it will be found that the 

 fortune of the crop, as a whole, is irretrievable if the ordinary 

 seed-time has from any cause been lost. 



In order the better to ascertain the lessons which the several 

 communications teach, they are here arranged in three classes, as 

 they come from heavy, medium, or light soils, respectively. 



14 REPORTS FROM HEAVY SOILS. 



1. Chadbury, near Evesham. 

 (380 acres Arable, and 220 Permanent Pasture.) 



Tlie Soil varies from jjoor tliin cla}', upon a subsoil of blue lias, to strong, 

 deep, productive clay, and there are about 60 acres of gravelly loam. Climate 

 very good. 



The Rotation of Crops : — Upon the poor clay — Wheat every alternate year, 

 with artificial manure ; the intermediate crops being either vetches or mixed 

 seeds, fed off by sheep eating cake or corn. This part of the farm, about 

 GO acres, is inaccessible to the dung-cart. It has not had a load of farmyard- 

 manure in the memory of man. 



On the better clay-land : — • 



1. Fallow crops (manured), i.e. either vetches, cabbages, mangolds, 



rape, or turnips. 



2. Wheat. 



3. Clover. 



4. Wheat. 



5. Winter beans (manured). 



6. Wheat. 



On the lighter land : — 



1. Eyegrass, vetches, or earlv cabbages fed off, then turnips (manured). 



2. Wheat. 



3. Mixed seeds. 



4. Wheat. 



5. Mangolds (manured). 



6. Wheat. 



7. Clover. 



8. Wheat. 



In ordinary years I sow no wheat in spring, though occasionally some of 

 the land after roots is planted as late as January ; but all with winter 

 wheat. 



The wet summer of 1871, and a continuance of the like weather throughout 

 1872, indicated clearly enough that the wheat seed-time of the latter year 

 would be a difiicult one. I endeavoured early to meet the difficulty in this 

 way : I have had my own steam-cultivator since 1857, but, not satisfied with 

 using this only, I hired another to plough 100 acres for wheat and winter 

 beans, immediately after harvest ; still all I could do was to get one-half my 

 wheat sown in the autumn, and this, notwithstanding that the whole farm is 

 eftectually drained, and has been cultivated by steam for 16 years. About 

 Christmas we were told in the * Times,' by an eminent theorist, that where 

 the land was drained, and the occupiers had used " ordinary diligence," there 

 had been no difficulty in wheat sowing ! Verily farmers should be philo- 

 sophers. The season had been a sore trial of patience, but this piece of im- 

 pertinence was even more hard to bear. 



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