294 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXIV. 



lated for strong soils than those which are very friable, and indeed thrives 

 with great luxuriance upon the heaviest clays. When sown upon light 

 sandy soils, the ground should be ploughed deep, to secure the roots from 

 the effects of drought ; but on those of a more adhesive nature less care is 

 necessary, and provided the land be perfectly clean and well furnished with 

 manure, it is very commonly made to enter every fourth year into the rota- 

 tion of crops, though it is sometimes found to tire of that frequent repe- 

 tition, and once in six, or even eight years, is certainly better *. 



Red clover is, however, the only species grown in the common courses 

 of cropping; for wheat soun upon white clover leys has been found much 

 inferior to that which, on the same soil, has followed the red kind. It 

 is never sown alone ; for not only is it very slightly productive in the very 

 first year, but the protection of some other plant is favourable to it in the 

 early stages of its growth, provided it be taken early oft' the ground : it is 

 therefore more generally sown along with lent-corn, — in the common rota- 

 lion of turnips, barley, clover, wheat, — than with any other crop ; though, 

 upon strong land, it is not unfrequently put into the ground in the spring, 

 after winter wheat, and fine crops are thus frequently grown. The farmers 

 in the north, indeed, generally prefer oats to follow rather than to precede 

 clover ; but in our southern and midland counties clover is considered the 

 very best preparation — except a clean fallow — for a crop of wheat. It may 

 also be sown with great advantage upon good land, along with flax to be 

 ])ulled green ; and on light soils the product has been found greater after 

 buck-wheat — whether cut for soiling or allowed to stand until ripe — than 

 after oats t. 



The qvMitily of seed is usually about 10 to 14 lbs. per acre on light 

 friable soil, when sown with barley, and from 12 to 16 or 18 lbs. with 

 wheat or oats, upon cold clays ; poor soils requiring more seed than those 

 in a high state of tilth and fertility. Some farmers also mix with it about 

 a peck of rye-grass, from an idea that a small mixture of this seed, which 

 produces an early plant, serves both as a nurse to the young clover and 

 improves the quality and quantity of the crop ; the propriety of the prac- 

 tice has, however, been much questioned X, unless when the crop is intended 

 to stand for a second year, in which case it is also expedient to sow about 

 4 lbs. of white clover along with it, instead of that quantity of the red. 



The time of sowing depends both upon the nature of the land, the state 

 of the weather, and the kind of crop which it accompanies. Being how- 

 ever uniformly sown in the spring, the seed- — when sown among oats upon 

 the stronger soils — is usually put into the ground during the course of the 

 month of March. When following wheat, it is lightly harrowed in before 

 the young- crop has get very far a-head ; or, if it be winter-proud, an ex- 

 cellent plan is then to feed it down with sheep, and when the land lias 

 been harrowed, to sow the clover and afterwards roll it. Among barley 

 grown after turnips, the month of April to the beginning of May is the 

 usual season ; and if the barley has been drilled, the sowing is sometimes 

 protracted until a fortnight after the seed has been put into the ground, or 

 until tlie plants have taken root, after which the clover is sown and bush- 

 harrowed and rolled, which answers the double purpose of covering the 

 seed and fixing the roots of the barley more firmly ; which, especially on 



* Survey of Essex, vol. ii. p. 17. Seealso Russeirs;Treatise ou Practical and Che- 

 mical Agncultiue, chap. x. 



t Von ThaeV, Priiic. Rais. d'Agric, 2nde edit. torn. iv. § 1304. 

 i Northumberland Rep. p 112 



