730 



F A R M E R S' REGISTER. 



[N&. 12 



nure ap|)lied to the fallow, but far too little in i)ro- I cut four years successively in hay, yieldiuo; nearly 

 poriion to the extent and condition of the land; or six tons and a half annually, and has alterwards 

 oats; oats, without dunir; hay; pasture ibr some I been pastured till December with sheep. By 



years. Thus the land was in the one case loo 

 much exhausted belore the iallow, and when laid 

 down in grass, was ui a poorer state than when 

 broken up. 



General system nf management. 



The object since lias been improvement, with a 

 view to which, it has been endeavored to get the 

 fields laid down in pasture, in as good a state as 

 the means of doing so. without too great a sacri- 

 fice of immediate return, woidd permit; and the 

 rotations, adopted accordino' as the land was more 

 or less impovcfished, have been oais; fallow with 

 dung; wheat; hay; pasture for seven or eight 

 years: or oais; fallow u'ith dung; wheat; red clo- 

 ver and rye grass; oats; peas; oats wiih dunij; 

 pasture to be continued lor at least four years. 

 With respect to the first, none of the land thus 

 laid down has yet been Droken up, but it has re- 

 turned as much in pasture asitcould probably 

 have been let for in its previous state under any 

 system ot manatjement, and will, it is expected, 

 yield proportionally well when brought again un- 

 der tillage. With respect to the second, the croj^s, 

 except the first one of oais, have been all good, 

 and the land appears to be left in a good state to 

 improve by resiins. There are, however, two ob- 

 jections to it — the difficulty of getting a sutficiency 

 of manure, and the difficulty— rather the iaifiossi- 

 bility, soil and climate considered — of keeping the 

 land to the last fi'om becominii: foul. Probably a 

 eaving of manure miirht be etfecled with equafre- 

 sulls, by applying the dung to the peas crop. A 

 luxuriant pulse crop of ilself li^rtilizrs the .«oil. It 

 draws much of its nourisluitent from the atmos- 

 phere; it protects the decomposable maiTer already 

 in the soil, from exhaustion by the sun and weather, 

 and adds to it by the decay oi'the lower part of its 

 leaves under cover, and of the inumerable insects 

 that in(i>st then). In the only instance in widch 

 this mode of applying the manure was tried here, 

 the crop was too luxurianl to be productive in grain, 

 but the succeeding white crop* was very laroe. A 

 balance of future ^profit is sometimes sacrificed lo 

 immediate gain, and if is believed that it would be 

 a considerable improvement on the system, were 

 this pulse crop raised with a view solely to fodder. 

 Such generally has been the mode adopied for 

 the improvement of this farm. Were it once all 

 gone over, perhaps a change of system miirht be 

 advisable — a more uniform system decidedly so. 

 Belore entering on deiails, the management of 

 three inclosures of the better land formerly men- 

 tioned may be adverted to, as they have afforded 

 a considerable means of ame!iorafni£r the rest. 

 For the five acres of sandy loam the rotation has 

 been, oats; turnips; potatoes^ wheat or red clover; 

 the crops always lar<re. One inclosure of five 

 acres of deep clayey loam, alier fidlow and wheat, 

 was sown with rye-grass, cocksfi>ot, timothy, anci 

 white clover; and besides these, there is now in its 

 herbage al>undance of holcus lanatus, several vari- 

 -eties of fiorin, poa pratensis, with some of the 

 -other indigenous grasses. It was drained, but not 

 sufficiently, and a part of it is infested with ra- 

 nunculus repens, called crowfoot or butter-cups. 



proper management it migiit have been rendered 

 a still more valuable appendaire to a farm on 

 which green crops can never be extensively or 

 successrully raised. It ought to be thoroughly 

 drained, and preparatory lo being laid down in 

 grass would require to be pared and burned. 

 From a trial made on about one-tbunh of it, an 

 occasional top-dressing of dung would amply re- 

 munerate. The other inclosure containing also 

 five acres, is a very rich alluvial clay, with a con- 

 siderable, perha[)s too larije, an admixture of ve- 

 getable matter. At no gieat distance of titne it 

 was a swamp. In the centre of it there is a hol- 

 low filled up with n)oss, and sfjringy, which has 

 been drained, and the clay from the tioltom of the 

 drain and other sources laid to the depth of at 

 least two inches on the moss, and it is now equal- 

 ly produclive as the rest of the field. It was 

 originully intended that this also should be con- 

 veried into a permanent me;idow, but the bidk of 

 its crop- has aHbr::ed a temptation to at least defer 

 that object. When broken up, it was one mass 

 of couch, the roots chiefly of a species of agros- 

 lis. It was fallowed iu a very fiivorable season, 

 ijot a m'oderale dressing of dunL^ and nine hun- 

 dred and sixiy Winchester bushels of" lime, and 

 was sown with wheat, drilled by an operation of 

 I he [)lough kno^vn under the name of "ribbing." 

 Had the sufceedins season not beet, ren)arkably 

 dry, the wheat, ii-om its strength, would have 

 been lost. After being kept in stack ibr eleven 

 months, the produce was two hundred and fifty- 

 two busfiels, and the produce in si raw was com- 

 paratively irrealer lh;ai that in grain. Oais, hay, 

 oats, potatoes, and turnips, have succeeded. The 

 hay was bad; the field, should it ever be convert- 

 ed to permanent meadow, ought to be pared and 

 burned, to extirpate the ranunculus. The oaie 

 were \ery bulky, the produce in grain of the two 

 years togelher, Ibur hundred and eighty bushels. 

 This season the field is airain in wheat, still a 

 very bulky crop; but that after turnips is thin; and, 

 considering this, and the weiness and coldness of 

 the season, the produce in grain cannot be es- 

 timated above a hundred and sixty bushels. 

 Viewed merely as a source of manure Ibr the rest 

 of the farm, these crops have certainly equalled 

 what would have been drawn from the field, had 

 it been laid down, as first intended, in the best 

 slate as a meadow. 



AIanagc7nent cf the rotation of crops. 



1st. Oats after pasture. — Were it not necessary 

 to take advanuiffe of the first occasion of ihe land 

 being in a protier state for harrowmg, lest another 

 may not in time occur, oats should not be sown 

 here till the middle of April. Before ihat period, 

 veijetatton is so languid, that the plants are una- 

 ble to resist the depredation of grubs; and if the 

 land be poor, they never recover. The earlier 

 and richer varieties do not succeed, and it is a ma- 

 terial objection to them, that they are all deficient 

 in straw; and on a farm dependent on the cattle- 

 yard for manure, and on wl)ich green crops can be 

 raised but to a small extent, this is a material ob- 



which, in hay, cattle will not touch. 

 * A white crop is any grain crop. — Ed. 



It has been jJ^'^'"""- ^„ 

 _. 2nd. 1^ allow — naked 



It was once tried to fal- 

 low u very poor field without previously taking 



