Breaking up Pastures. 13 



that wheat had better be taken after the seeds have stood for one 

 year. All new arable land lias a tendency to become hollow and 

 spongy ; and if the ground is loose, wire-worms, where these 

 abound, can more readily carry on their destructive operations. 

 Measures should, therefore, always be adopted to keep the soil 

 firm when under crop of any kind, I have omitted to mention 

 beans as a crop suitable to a clay soil, because on new land they 

 are an uncertain crop. When so planted they frequently look 

 well at the commencement of their giowth ; but as the summer 

 advances they become weak and sickly, the blossoms fall oft, 

 and at harvest, although there may be a fair c[uantity of haulm, 

 but very few corn-pods appear on the stalks; still beans* may 

 in some situations be advantageously substituted for clover after 

 the first corn-crop. 



Chalk. — In this branch of my subject I shall have chiefly to 

 speak of those Down pastures that once exclusively occupied the 

 long ranges of our English chalk-hills, to which of late the opera- 

 tion of breaking up has been most extensively applied. Friends 

 who occupy large tracts of such soil concur with me in opinion 

 that here also the breast-plough and fire are the best agents that 

 can be used ; and that to adopt any other course is to invite 

 failure. One approved plan is the following : — Pare the turf as 

 thin as possible, burn it when sufficiently dry, and, when the 

 ashes are spread, " rafter "f the land with the horse-plough; in 

 the autumn " rafter " a^ain, across the first work, and plant 

 wheat as the first crop : a turnip-crop follows, and then the field 

 enters into the regular farm-culture. Some good cultivators, 

 after paring and burning in the same season, plant swedes or 

 rape and turnips, to be followed by wheat or oats. Where there 

 is a fair chance of success, the gain of a turnip-crop, with its 

 attendant benefits, is not to be neglected. But the judicious 

 farmer, like the skilful physician, must have regard to every 

 feature in the ])atient's case. 



Gravel on Chalk. — 'Some of the chalk-hills, such as those in 

 the neighbourhood of Henley, in Oxfordshire, have a surface-soil 

 of gravel and flints. In breaking up such lands as these, both 

 the author and some of his acquaintance have taken the following 



* It may not be generally known that o7/? beans nscd as seed frequently produce 

 a much better crop tlian m-w seed-beans. Tlie writer could mention many remark- 

 able instances of the kind, and is so fully impressed M-ith tlie advantage of planting 

 old beans, that he seldom uses any other except for experiment. 



t Kaftering. — This is frequently done by taking off the "ground wrest" and 

 " tumfurrow " from an ordinary plough, and substituting a bit of wood (about 

 6 or 8 inches long, and 3 inches in depth) for the " turnfurrow." With the plough 

 so prepared, alternate strips between each furrow are left unploughed, and the 

 furrow slices are laid on tliis firm unmoved ground, so that only half the land is 

 actually moved; the work can also be done with an unaltered plough. 



