14 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



brought the clods of couch grass and wiry turf to the surface, 

 which, with the quantity of soil necessary to procure a good 

 dressing of ashes, were shovelled and forked together, and burned 

 in heaps of about a cart-load each, with wood from the neglected 

 hedge-rows in the vicinity. The weather, he says, was unfa 

 vorable, and the work not well done, but the result was sat 

 isfactory. The field, after the ashes were lightly ploughed in, 

 was planted with vetches, and these were eaten off the succeed 

 ing summer with sheep, and then planted with wheat, which 

 produced more than thirty bushels per acre. It was afterwards 

 laid down to grass, and carries a much heavier stock than before. 

 He says &quot; that, if he finds it go back, he shall plough it again for 

 vetches, having no doubt that it is now capable of bearing a 

 crop sufficient, when consumed upon the land by sheep,&quot; (I beg 

 my readers particularly to remark this qualification,) &quot;to enable 

 it to grow as good a crop of wheat as the last.&quot; 



His next trial was upon a field of sixteen acres, fifteen of 

 which are a strong clay, the remainder fair turnip land. The 

 clay part of the field was exceedingly foul, so that he had two 

 objects to attain first, to get rid of the couch by burning it in 

 the clods ; next, with the ashes so obtained, to render the whole 

 field capable of bearing a crop of swedes. In this case, likewise, 

 he speaks of his success. &quot; The whole, after draining, was limed 

 and manured alike, and the crop was quite as good upon the 

 clay as upon any part of the field. All the swedes were con 

 sumed upon the land by sheep ; the succeeding barley crop 

 was much better upon the part which had rarely, if ever, been 

 planted with barley before ; the seeds (that is, the grass seeds) 

 were equally good ; but the wheat crop this year, (1843,) from 

 the excessive growth of straw, went down early, and became 

 mildewed, and, though more bulky than the rest of the field, will 

 not be so productive. The field is now ploughed for swedes 

 again ; and the clay part is as healthy, and as likely to grow a 

 crop, as that which has always been considered turnip land.&quot; 



It will not escape observation, that this land last mentioned 

 was drained, and limed, and manured, and all the swede turnips 

 consumed upon it by the sheep, who were, of course, folded upon 

 it. This certainly cannot be considered as niggardly treatment 

 of the land, whatever may have been the effects of the burning. 



Two other fields are mentioned, in order to show more satis- 



