Deepening the Staple Soil. 557 



effect of the ploughing (as usual) was shown, first, in drying the 

 soil too much ; secondly, in imperfect pulverization. To these 

 causes we attribute the irregularity of the braird of the swedes. 

 The whole was twice horse-hoed with a light shallow paring or 

 Aveed-destroying horse-hoe, and at the same time singled and hand- 

 hoed. When the plants were strong and about a foot across the 

 foliage, the grubber horse-hoe went through, first 4 inches deep, 

 then 8 inches, then the full depth of the worked soil, namely, 

 one foot ; a fortnight intervening between each operation. The 

 whole was a first-rate crop, but the part wholly cultivated by the 

 plough rather uneven in plant. In the end. of November we 

 had four square poles of the average of each weighed, after clean 

 topping and tailing : — 



I'rotluce per Acre. 



No. 1. By plough cultivation 19^ tons. 



No. 2. By plough and gnibber cultivation .. .. 23| ,, 



No. 3. By grubber alone 21^ ,, 



The whole crop was drawn off and the field sown, one-half with 

 April wheat and the other with oats, all drilled across the line of 

 cultivation, after being ^ repared in the following way : — 



No. 1. Half ploughed 10 inches and the other half finches 

 deep. 



No. 2. The same. 



No. o. Half was grubbed 10 inches and the other half 4 

 inches deep. The whole was sown the last week of March, and 

 was dressed with 3 cwt. of salt per acre the beginning of May. 

 The Avhole field was sown with Italian rye-grass and broad 

 clover the last week of May and hoed in. 



Although the season was very dry, the seeds were an excellent 

 crop. They fed off six ewes witli their lambs per acre ; two acres 

 were mown for our horses, and directly after each mowing it was 

 manured at the rate of half a cwt. of nitrate of soda and one cwt. 

 of guano mixed per acre. This yielded four mowings, keeping 

 ten horses from the 12th of May till the end of August, each 

 horse liaving a bushel of split beans a week. We observed that 

 on all tiie parts deeply cultivated for the grain crops the seeds 

 were much the best, but we could discover no difference for or 

 against the grubbed part No. 3. There being a capital lot of 

 sheep keep, wliicli after this dry season was too valuable to 

 VOL. XVI 1. 2 1' 



