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V. — Lois-Weedon JF/icaf-Growinr/ icifh Ilorsc (or Sfeavi) TilJaf/e. 

 By John Algernon Clarke. 



First of all, let me state the results of " Lois-Weedon wheat- 

 growing " icith the spade. And I would premise, that no one 

 personally acquainted with the Rev. Samuel Smith, Vicar of 

 Lois-Weedon (near Towcester, Northamptonshire), no one who 

 has visited the spot, inspected the crops, and examined the soil 

 (as I have done more than once), doubts U)V a moment the abso- 

 lute truthfulness of all Mr. Smith's published statements of cost 

 and produce. So that my account may be received without the 

 least suspicion of high-colouring or suppression of unfavourable 

 facts. 



The experimental " clay piece," 3 acres in extent, had for the 

 most part a staple only 5 inches deep, resting upon an impervious 

 yellow and blue clay of the oolite formation. There is nothing 

 peculiar in the aspect, situation, proximity of woodland, and so 

 on, to render this plot an unfair sample of the land in that neigh- 

 bourhood ; and judging from the surrounding district, which con- 

 tains hundi'eds of acres of apparentlv precisely similar soil (much 

 of it with even a deeper staple), a fair rental for it would be about 

 27s. per acre. Twenty years ago, it was vmder old pasture, the 

 turf of which was pared and taken off the land. The ground 

 was ploughed the full depth of the 5-inch staple for oats, followed 

 by vetches. After this came the first " Lois-Weedon " wheat, 

 sown in triple rows, with wide fallow spaces between. These 

 intervals were dug by hand, one spit deep, so as to bring up to 

 the surface only a few inches of the raw clay. The second year, 

 these well-stirred and horse-hoed fallow intervals bore the three- 

 row stripes of wheat, and the stubble-row stripes were dug in ; 

 and so on, fallow intervals and wheat rows succeeding one another 

 in alternate years. In the third and fourth years the spade went 

 down a little deeper, and so, gradually and regularly for four 

 years more, till a depth of IG to 18 inches was reached. Mr. 

 Smith then cultivated for the next four years with oidi/ a sinyle- 

 spit digging ; and, in 1858, again returned to the trenching two 

 spits deep, with a fresh inch or so of clay. At the present date 

 (1865), the digging has not yet reached "1 feet in depth ; a great 

 portion is from ]8 to 20 inches deep, little more than it was ten 

 years ago. So that Mr. Smith has not been compelled to go 

 deeper for each succeeding cro]) ; and not a grain of any species 

 of manure, animal, vegetable, or mineral, has ever been given to 

 the land. 



The average produce of the first eight years, beginning with 

 the harvest of 1847, was fully 34 bushels per acre — the whole 



