Wealden Clay of Sussex. J 89 



made, the stagnant water injures or destroys every crop, and 

 chills the best land by evaporation in the spring. No amount 

 of manure will counterbalance the evil effects of stagnant water 

 going off by evaporation. 



Whether under crop or in pasture, these clays are strongly 

 acted on by heat and drought. In a dry summer and autumn 

 they are cracked in every direction, the fissures being from 1 to 

 4 or 5 feet in depth, and it is an old observation in the Weald 

 that such a summer is always followed by a fruitful year; but, 

 unless the hot and dry summer be followed by a wet autumn or 

 winter, all draining is stopped, for men cannot dig such hardened, 

 clay, except to very great disadvantage. 



Wheat is at all times the main object of the Wealden farmer, 

 and to this crop he gives all his manure, besides a summer's 

 fallow, which is thought to be the only true way, though when 

 trusted in too much it is called " dressing with the plough- 

 share." Before May is out, some farmers begin to prepare for 

 wheat by breaking up a piece of land which has been left in 

 bents for a year or two ; or perhaps a piece of clover, which was 

 first mown and then allowed to stand for seed. Heaps of poor 

 manure are set about it, and exposed to the sun and rain for 

 weeks together ; then they are ploughed in, harrowed, and rolled. 

 There are cases in which the land has been cropped in this 

 manner with wheat till it yielded only about 10 bushels an acre 

 after a fallow. This crop is followed by oats, after a miserable 

 crop of which the land, foul and exhausted, is again left for a 

 year or two to rest. Tliere is much to be said in favour of a 

 summer's fallow for wheat on a soil that cannot, like the light 

 lands of Norfolk, be worked at almost any time. By means of 

 it one is sure to " make a seaso7i," as the phrase is here, — that 

 is, have some favourable opportunity of getting the seed into 

 the ground, and thus ensure a good plant. Under favourable 

 circumstances — that is to say, when an early harvest is followed 

 by a fine autumn — a two-year course may be pursued, taking 

 wheat alternately with green or root-crops ; or in some cases, 

 barley may be taken on a wheat-stubble with advantage, sowing 

 in February or March on land ploughed before winter. 



One hears sometimes of 40 bushels of wheat per acre being 

 grown in the Weald, and I have heard of instances in which 60 

 were grown, but they are rare. Of course, every farmer would 

 prefer 40 bushels an acre to 16, yet it will commonly be found 

 that the smaller produce is superior in quality to the larger one. 



Narrow, shaded fields of cold clay can produce very little, but 

 when cleared of hedge-row timber, drained, and manured, the 

 same land is capable of bearing large crops ; for by the general 



