183S] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



147 



Solving. — The quantity of seed wheat to a sta- 

 tute acre sown l)i'uud cast, is I'roui two and a hiilC 

 to three imperial bushels. The usual return, in 

 favorable seasons, may be about Ironi thirty-ibur 

 to thirty-eiiTJU imperial bushels per acre. 



Period of sowing. — On summer fallows, wheat 

 is sown about the second week of September; and 

 if wheat is tried after turnips, led oil' on the lands 

 by sheep, which is sometimes the case on lighter 

 soils, the sowing being pcrlbrmcd during the win- 

 ter months in proportion as the turnips are con- 

 sumed. 



Tares or vetches — Are seldom or never sown 

 in this district. They answer, however, admira- 

 bly in this district on fresh soils : they have inva- 

 riably yielded a very large return of green food 

 for soiling, and have been sown on purpose to be 

 ready to be cut as green food, between the first 

 and second crops of clover. Tares are never 

 made into hay in this district; and indeed from 

 the great quantity of succulent matter they pro- 

 duce, in a variable climate, the process ol making 

 them into hay would be attended with much risk 

 and probably little advantage. They are very 

 useful when consumed in summer, in soiling by 

 cattle or horses, and thereby adding greatly to the 

 dunghill — a pomt of paramount importance, but 

 in no other light is their culture recommended. 



Rape. — Rape succeeds here very well on lands 

 in fair condition. An experiment on rather a 

 large scale, was tried about eight years ago, of 

 sowing in the month of July, no less a quantity 

 than 120 acres of land of the first-rate quality — 

 of loam intended for permanent pasture — with 

 rape alone. The ground was previously tho- 

 roughly cleaned and limed, the rape and grass 

 seeds sown, and the rape, mimediately on arriving 

 at maturity, eat off by sheep. The effect has 

 answered, and the lands in question are the best 

 pasture in the country at this moment. 



Turnips. — The turnips sown here are the globe, 

 the Aberdeen yellow, and the Swedish; all these 

 varieties, when the seed is good and fresh, and 

 the proper culture followed, have invariably suc- 

 ceeded here. The globe is consumed first, then 

 the Aberdeen yellow, and lastly the Swedes. A 

 number of other turnip seeds have been tried, 

 such as the tankard, the green roiuid, &c.; but 

 from experience, the three kinds first named are 

 decidedly preferred. 



Drill husbandry. — Turnips are always drilled 

 here, and without a single case of failure. The 

 turnip husbandry of East Lothian and Berwick- 

 shire is followed from first to last. The crops pro- 

 duced are generally heavy, sound, and cood, even 

 on the stifl'est description of clays. These crops 

 are either consumed in the farm-yards by cattle, or 

 on the ground by sheep. In eating of!' turnips by 

 elieep, the practice here has always been at first to 

 confine the flock on an extent calculated to support 

 them fully for one week, and to give them a li'esh 

 break once a week afterwards, allowing the flock 

 the range over the first portions of ground allot- 

 ted to them. Hay, m sheep-haicks or cribs, is 

 given along with turnips; Swedes are undoubted- 

 ly a most valuable crop to the farmer, and are the 

 favorite food of all sorts of cattle and sheep. It is 

 the custom in this establishment also to give the 

 working horses, in the winter and sprinf; months, 

 a considerable proportion of Swedes daily; and 

 the efiect is to make the animals eat their oats 



with more avidity, and to render them more fresh, 

 and their coats more glossy. No other crops 

 (|)otatoes, beans, and mangel wurzel, excepted,) 

 are drilled here. On the light soils, however, 

 there is not tlie least doubt thut all the white crops 

 may be drilled and hand-hoed with the greatest 

 advantage; and it is in contemplation to resort to 

 this mode cf culture in future, as the most garden- 

 like management, and as yielding a heavier and 

 better descri|ition cf grain, while at the same 

 time all annual and olher weeds are destroy ed._ 

 Swedish turnips are sown in the latter end of 

 April or beginning of May; globe and Aberdeen^ 

 yellows during the first" and second weeks of 

 June. It is proper to mention, that the sheep ge- 

 nerally fed off by turnips, are the best descrip- 

 tion of Cheviot wedders from Sutherland, Rox- 

 burgh, and Dumfi-ieshire. Ewes and lambs on 

 tunlipj are seldom or ever attempted here. It 

 would be reckoned very slovenly management 

 to allow turnips to sprout in spring; they are al- 

 ways consumed when perfectly sound in the bulb, 

 wliether in the yards or in the fields. 



Barleij. — Barley succeeds turnips which were 

 consumed on the giound by sheep: of course 

 these crops can only follow with advantage in ro- 

 tation on turnip soils. If the turnips have been 

 properly managed, as already described by the 

 eating "them on the ground, the lightest soils will 

 be compactly beat together by the treading of the 

 flock. One furrow on such soils is considered in 

 general sufficient, and the proper time of sowing is 

 from 1st April to 20th May. It is here proper to 

 state, that barley after turnip should be sown hot 

 furrow, that is to say, the sower should imme- 

 diately follow the plough, and the harrow the 

 sower; and probably, if the weather appears to 

 set in droughty, the grass seeds and roller should 

 close the scene behind the harrows. When the 

 process of barley-sowing is conducted in this way, 

 a failure of crops has never taken place here. 

 Pure barley alone is sown; and the old variety, 

 called rough beer or big, seems, with much pro- 

 priety, to be quite out of fashion in the district. 

 These grounds seldom fail to produce barley of an 

 excellent malting quality; indeed, the vale of the 

 Esk is celebrated for the good quality of its barley 

 crops. 



Grass. — Grass never fails to succeed here after 

 barley. If it is intended to cut the grass crop 

 green for soiling, ryegrass, with a large propor- 

 tion of red clover, and a small proportion of white, 

 are sown. The soils here, from the management 

 described, are generally fresh ; and not one single 

 case is remembered where the clover crops have 

 failed altogether on any of these soils. 



Ryegrass — As a hay grass, is a very valuable 

 variety; but when land is intended for permanent 

 pasture, or for lying a number of years, ryegrass 

 does not appear to be so well adapted as many 

 other varieties for grazing purposes, and hitherto 

 too much seed of this kind has been sown here on 

 permanent pasture lands. 



Fiorin Grass has never been cultivated here. 

 It is probable, however, that practical agricultu- 

 rists mav, in many cases, entertain unfounded 

 prejudices airainst this grass. A small fiorin mea- 

 dow, as a trial, is in the progress of being laid out 

 at present. 



Sainfoin is never sown in this district, and clo- 

 ver is seldom or never sown without a mixture of 



