720 



ENGLAND. 



\\ ..- .-. 



Thnnhing 



IllitcllUU'. 



oUmn'e 

 nf anble 



south-western eounticj', that three, four, or five hones, 

 re almost always employed in a plough. L'ndfr 

 circumstances, and on some soils even a still gri atrr 

 number are used. Notwithstanding this great mmil>er 

 of horses, the furrow, even on light soils, is seldom 

 more than 3.J or * inches deep ; nor, in general, is more 

 than three-fourths of an acre ploughed in the course of 

 a day. Of course, where there are more than two 

 horses, a driver, as well as a holder, is necessary. In 

 this rcsptvt, therefore, English husbandry presents no- 

 thing )>r .i-e-worthy. 



Few of the other implements of agriculture used in 

 : :ul require particular notice; they arc very nu- 



merous ; almost constant changes arc making in them ; 

 but simplicity of principle and construction are too 

 little attended to. With the exception of the northern 

 count! <ms are almost universally used in hus- 

 bandry, as well as carts. In the northern counties, on 

 the contrary, waggons are seldom seen in the occupa- 

 tion of a fanner. The thrashing machine is now pret- 

 unon in most ]>arts of tbe kingdom, but it is only 

 within these very few years that it has been introduced 

 into the midland. and southern counties: though the 

 ininutia- of its construction vary considerably, j-et in 

 almo-t every case it operates by beating, not rubbing 

 out the grain. 



Before agricultural improvements began in England, 

 there appears to have been little or no fallow land : one 

 of the first, or at least one of the most striking and im- 

 portant improvements in its agriculture, was the intro- 

 duction of fallows ; they are very common on most of 

 the strong and wet lands in the arable districts, though 

 attempts have been made, especially in the southern 

 counties, which are favoured with a long and dry sum- 

 Fallows u. mer > to f l without them. On the light dry soils, in 

 penciled, almost every part of the kingdom, they have been en- 

 tirely superseded by the introduction of turnips and 

 other green crops. 



Rotations. The courses of crops commonly cultivated vary very 

 much, not only according to the nature of the soil and 

 climate, but even with the same soil and climate. "In 

 the best farmed counties, which may justly be consi- 

 dered to be Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, and Northumber- 

 land, a general principle is laid down, not to sow two 

 white crops in succession : this principle is gradually 

 extending itself, and is acted upon by the best farmers 

 in all parts of the kingdom. It is, however, still ne- 

 glected by too many ; and oats or barley after wheat, 

 wheat after oats, and two or three crops of oats in suc- 

 cession, are by no means uncommon. On light soils, 

 the most judicious rotation, and that which is pursued 

 by the most intelligent and successful agriculturists, is 

 Iwrrowed from the county of Norfolk, and thence cal- 

 led the Norfolk system : it consists of turnips, barley, 

 clover, and wheat. On heavy soils, no one rotation 

 is nearly so common as this is on light soils. Those 

 most pursued are fallow, wheat, beans, oats : fallow, 

 wheat, oats : fallow, wheat, clover, beans, oats. Bar- 

 ley is not often introduced into the rotations on strong 

 l-inds ; and tares or cabbages are sometimes substituted 

 for fallow. In the Isle of Stiepey, in Kent, and in a few 

 other spots of uncommon fertility, wheat and beans are 

 grown, without the intervention either of a fallow or 

 any other crop. 



'lea these rotations, in the course of which the 

 ground is constantly under the plough, there are other 

 rotations founded on the principles of what is called 

 the convertible husbandry. According to the prin- 

 ciples of this husbandry, the ground, after being laid 



down for three, five, or more years, to grasn, is bro- .< 

 leu up, ;nul -own with different species 1. 1' corn for ~ , - 

 s<i:ne years, after which it is again laid down to u 

 This modi- ot' husbandry is making its way into the 



: mcd district- of England, so that more i; 

 land, (not pi'nnanci't. hut t'nr a lew fMIl), is seen in 

 the tli-tricts, strictly speaking arable, than was former- 

 ly kc])t ; and a grc.itrr breadth of ground is under the 

 plough, in many of those counties, which formerly 

 were almost exclusively under trass. 



Wheat is by far the most inijx>rtant, and the most what. 

 extensively cultivated crop in England: from what lias 

 .'ready >:iid, it will appear thi.t it is sown al\cr 

 clover, fallow, tares and cabbages ; it is also sown 

 after beans and potatoes, but never in the best farmed 

 districts of England after any white crop. As it is a 

 crop on which the farmer mainly depends, the prcpa- 

 rntion tor it, in whatever rotation it comes, is matured 

 with great labour and attention. If it is to be sown 

 after fallow, the land is ploughed and harrowed re- 

 p.'atully, and well manured: after clover, only OIK- 

 ploughing is given, and seldom more after be;uis: where 

 tares have been previously .sown, they are got off' the 

 land in sufficient time to plough it more than once for 

 the succeeding crop of wheat. The drill husbandry, 

 with respect to this crop, is by no means common in 

 England ; and it is still less frequently put in with the 

 dibble, by far the greatest proportion being sown broad- 

 cast. The usual quantity of seed to an acre is from 

 2| to 3 bushels. The kinds of wheat sown are very 

 numerous, but they may be classed under four 1.. 

 cone or bearded wheat, which however is now little 

 sown ; white wheat, of which the varieties are almost 

 numberless ; red wheat, which is seldom sown where 

 the climate is very good and early, and the land in 

 high condition ; and spring wheat. The last, in con- 

 sequence of the high price of wheat, and the di --ire 

 which this naturally produces in the farmer to .sow 

 wheat after his turnips in the spring, is becoming more 

 common, though the real spring wheat is of compara- 

 tively late introduction. Wheat is seldom sown before 

 the beginning or middle of September in any part of 

 England, and seldom so late as the end of April : the 

 most usual period is between the middle of October and 

 the end of the yerr. While growing, not much atten- 

 tion or labour are bestowed upon it, unless where it is 

 drilled, in which ease it is how cd: where sown broai' 

 it is sometimes rolled and harrowed in the spring. The 

 wheat harvest commences in the south of England about 

 the end of July, or the beginning of August: in the 

 midland counties it is about 10 days later ; in the 

 northern counties, nearly three weeks. There is r. stri- 

 king difference in the- harvest field operations with re- 

 spect to this, as well as other kinds of grain, in the 

 north and in the south of England : in the former, du- 

 ring harvest, the corn field exhibits a large num- 

 ber of reapers, perhaps 50, dO. or even 100, all pro- 

 ceeding in their operations together, and presenting 

 an interesting and animating picture. In the south of 

 England, and indeed over the greater part of the mid- 

 land counties, on the contrary, wheat is cut down by 

 two or three individuals, each of whom contracts to 

 cut a field, or a certain number of acres. The wheat 

 field consequently exhibits merely one or two men, per- 

 haps, with their wives, working in different parts of 

 it. Wheat is seldom or never cut down with the 

 scythe, but is either renped with the common sickle, or, 

 as is the practice in some of the counties near the me- 

 tropolis., as well as in some of the south western coun- 



