556 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



it would be ploughed an iucli or two more deep ; and then it should lie 

 again for three or four weeks, to get quite fine before the time for 

 barley sowing arrived. In that way I have succeeded in obtaining 

 two pieces of as fine barley as I have ever seen in my neighbourhood. 

 Of the 140 acres of barley, the straw of 100 will probably be con- 

 sumed by the animals, chiefly sheep — 'it certainly was so last year. 

 Our stock of straw was so short that we were compelled to thrash the 

 barley rather fast, to meet the requirements of the sheep. 



The chief drawback which I find is, that on the drier part of my land 

 the straw manm-e has a special value for the turnip crop as a source of 

 moisture. In a very dry year white turnips, when they were put in 

 with straw maum-e in July, were able to stand drought, while those 

 which had had artificial manure, though they came uj) well, died off". 

 This difference I am inclined to attribute to the very fair supply of 

 water which was gradually drawn up from below after the ploughing 

 in of from 8 to 10 tons of straw manure, three-fourths of which is 

 comj)osed of water. But straw manure is also required for the growth 

 of wheat on light lands. The one element in the straw required on 

 light lands, which we do not seem able thus far to rejilace satisfactorily, 

 is i^otash. So far as my experience has gone I have not found potash in 

 any artificial form which would serve as a substitute for the potash 

 in yard-made straw manm'e. 



I have thus endeavoured faintly to trace the modifications made in 

 my farm management so far as they bear on the subjects before us. 

 Of course, a decrease in the number of bullocks in the yard is a 

 natm'al if not a necessary consequence of the increase of the sheep 

 stock, and of the consumption of straw as food. The drawbacks con- 

 nected with the change of system are that I still want straw manure for 

 my wheat crop and turnip crop on my light land ; if the soil were 

 more of a clay I should be more independent. 



Sir George Jenkinson: Don't you think that yard-made straw 

 manure is most essential on heavy land ? 



Mr. Frere said, according to his experience, it was not. His farm 

 bailiff" used to think that without straw manure he could not grow 

 mangold on stiff" land ; but one or two years' trial of artificial manure 

 so satisfied him that after that, he said, he did not care to have 

 farm-yard manure for that crop. 



Mr. Dent said there could be no doubt that in a large portion of the 

 Wolds of Lincolnshire and Yorkshii-e the idea j)revailed that farmers 

 could not properly dispose of their straw unless they had plenty of 

 cattle to convert it into manure. Nor could it be doubted that, owing 

 to the losses recently sustained, there would in many cases be great 

 difficulty in procuring bullocks to make the straw into manure. There 

 had, indeed, been great difficulty even in the last winter. Then came 

 the question how far they could make good straw-manure with sheep. 

 He was inclined to think that in many of the districts where large 

 quantities of turnips were grown, ewes had, as a rule, had far too 

 many turnips and far too little straw. His own experience of his flock 

 of sheep was, that the fewer turnips the ewes had, after being removed 

 from the tup, the healthier they were, and the better they did 



