A GREAT FARM 143 



large landed gentry go and do likewise ? Why can- 

 not they farm their own land ? 



Before I leave the cows I should add that, on the 

 whole, the milking-machine used at Ourupgaard, which 

 I believe is named the Kennedy- Laurence, has proved 

 so satisfactory that Mr. Tesdorpf proposes, or proposed, 

 to substitute it for hand milkers throughout his herds. 



Departing from the byres, I went to visit a field of 

 sugar-beet 180 English acres in extent. Here I may 

 mention that this particular home-farm is divided into 

 eight fields of the same area, namely, 180 acres. The 

 rotation followed on it is as follows: (1) wheat; (2) 

 sugar-beet ; (3) barley ; (4) sugar-beet again ; (5) oats ; 

 (6) barley sown down with clover; (7) clover, half 

 of which stands two years and half of which is fallowed 

 in the second year, thus allowing one fallow of all the 

 land in sixteen years in order to rest it and exterminate 

 weeds. 



The sugar-beet were a close and healthy plant. 



1 measured them with a rule, and found that they 

 averaged 1 5 inches from row to row and 8 inches from 

 beet to beet. Mr. Tesdorpf stated that a usual crop 

 of these beet is 12 tons per acre, but I cannot help 

 thinking that his must come out at more than this 

 figure. If they do not, it is difficult to understand 

 under what circumstances are grown the weights of 

 from 15 to 20 tons the acre of which we hear in 

 England, as I could not see how it was possible for 

 land to give a much larger increase of this particular 

 root. 



The soil here is manured as follows : 1 2 tons per 

 acre of farmyard muck, 3 cwt. of super-phosphate, and 



2 cwt. of nitrate of soda. The cost of cultivation, 

 including every expense, namely, drilling, thinning, 



