322 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



clover-seed will sow an acre, and this at lOd. a pound 

 is 7s. 6d., and the rye-grass Is. 6d. more in all 9s. for 

 an acre ; whilst to sow an acre with hay-seeds takes 

 eighteen or twenty firkins, often costing Is. a firkin 

 say 1 8s. an acre, just double the price of the clover and 

 rye-grass. I know that by saving your own hay-seeds, 

 you think you get them cheaper, but this is not so 

 really. But another objection to hay -seeds is, that 

 when they are saved from ordinary land, which is 

 not very clean, there are always a great many seeds 

 of weeds amongst them, and these being sown with 

 the hay-seed, grow up and injure the next crop of 

 wheat very much. But clover-seed, on the -contrary, 

 has no seeds of weeds amongst it, and grows so thick 

 on the land, that it stifles and kills the weeds which 

 spring up ; and the roots of the clover, when ploughed 

 into the land, serve as a great help of manure for it. 

 It is besides well known, that to have land under good 

 clover for one year, rests it and refreshes it as much as 

 **f it was three years under poor grass ; so that I have 

 fo doubt, but that by growing clover and rye-grass, 

 instead of hay-seed, you will find your land will yield 

 better crops of wheat than it now does. When all 

 these benefits of clover are added together, I really 

 wonder that any farmer will sow any more hay-seed. 

 It is like throwing money (or what in a farmer's 

 eyes should be still worse, manure) into the sea, to 

 do so. 



But I must now go on to tell you why I think tur- 

 nips a more valuable crop for farmers, even than clover, 

 of which you begin to feel the benefit, and which I fully 

 admit is a very valuable crop too. But I say turnips 

 are more valuable. 



