202 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



because the tines of the dra<is and harrows ^et 

 deeper into the ground in this way, and are much 

 more efficacious than ifthe whole of these opera- 

 tions were performed in one or two directions. 

 The roucrher the surface is left after this the better 

 if the clods are not too lartje. Women are now 

 employed to go over the whole of the land that is 

 sown, 10 break all the large clods and to turn all 

 those that have any grass on them with the grassy 

 soil undermost. Whatever part of the wheat 

 requires it is hoed, as early in the spring as possi- 

 ble, by men with narrow hoes, at from three and 

 sixpence to five shillings per acre. 



The seed is selected of the best quality, of the 

 previous yearh groivth, and perfectly clean and 

 fi-ee from ail seeds. The red-straw-laramas is the 

 kind that is always sown upon this (arm. No 

 such thing as smut is ever known upon this farm, 

 which is prevented, we believe, by the invariable 

 use of old wheat for seed. When wheat that has 

 been harvested in August is sown again on the 

 first of September, it has not Iiad time to be so 

 well hardened and so perfectly prepared for vege- 

 tation as it ought to be ; and, therefore, does not 

 produce a crop so perfect, in every respect, as old 

 seed : and hence the smut. Nor is there often 

 either rust or blight on the wheat produced on this 

 farm, which is probably owing to its being much 

 exposed. 



The wheat harvest, in the Coiswnld hills, begins 

 generally in July; and Mr. Hay ward is fidly per- 

 suaded of the propriety of harvesting this crop, 

 before it is luliy ripe, the quality of the irrain fall- 

 ing off very much,, when it is allowed to stand till 

 that time. The proper time for cutting it is, he 

 thinks, when the roots cease to convey nourish- 

 ment to the plants. The expense of leaping is six 

 Bhillings and ten quarts of beer per acre. 



The whole crop is carried, as soon as it is read}', 

 and stacked in the barn-yard adjoining tlie farm- 

 house. When this operation begins, the whole 

 etrength is brouijht to bear upon one point. We 

 have seen a large field, at the distance of a mile 

 and a half from the barn-yard, cleared in a day by 

 seven teams and eiizht wagons, conveying from 

 the field to the ricks forty-two wagon loads of 

 about iliirty bushels each. This was six journeys 

 of three miles to each of the teairis, besides the 

 distance gone over in the field in ioadinff the wa- 

 gons, which would make the whnle journey for 

 each team at least twenty iniles. The ricks nre 

 made very large ; consequently a great many 

 hands are employed. Two ricks are buildinjr at 

 the same time, and one of them is always nearpr 

 finished than the other. While the nek is level 

 with, or lower than the wagon, only one man 

 is employed in unloading; but when the rick is 

 higher than the wagon, there are two employed 

 till the rick gets very high, when one man unloads, 

 the work being then necessarily carried on more 

 slowly. When there are two men unloading the 

 wagon, there are generally three building around 

 upon the rick, attended by three hoys or girls to 

 lay the sheaves to them, and other two to throw 

 the sheaves to the former from the pitchers. On 

 the other rick there are one or two builders, with 

 a sufficiency of tenders to carry on the work with 

 expedition and efficiency. In the field there are 

 two men pitching to each wagon, two building 

 the wagon, and a boy driving the team. There 

 are always two wagons by the rick unloading; 



two in the field, loading ; two on the road, with 

 loads from the field to the rick-yard; and two 

 empty ones going from the rick-yard to the field. 

 After the wheat is carried, the stubble is mowed 

 and carried to the yard, stacked and used as litter 

 (or the beasts in the courts. 



The expense of preparing the land for a crop 

 of wheat may be estimated at two and a quarter 

 days' work of a team per acre ; but it is impossible 

 to make an exact esliniaie of tiie labor lequired for 

 this or any other crop, the labor ilsell varying with 

 circumstances. The state of the weather alters 

 the state of the land. If the weather is adverse, 

 the laboris increased ; if favorable, itis diminished. 



When, as is sometimes the case, a [lortion of 

 the poorest of the land is allowed to remain three 

 years in grass, an equivalent portion of what has 

 been but one year in this crop is prepared and 

 sown with wheat; in order to preserve, as nearly 

 as possible, the regular quantity of wheat and of" 

 clover for the (bod of the sheep, which is about 

 one-seventh of all the arab.'e land. 



'i'he thrashing of the wheat is performed with a 

 machine and lour horses, by (our men, three 

 women, and a boy, thrashing from ten to twelve 

 quarters per day, and costs about a shilling a quar- 

 ter for manual labor, making, if we take into ac- 

 count the value of the horses' labor, the expense 

 of this operation with the machine, at least, equal 

 to what it would be if the work were done with the 

 flail. The advantage of the machine is, that you 

 get the work done at once, whenever you wish it, 

 and without the loss of corn attending the use of 

 the flail, which is. at least, equal to the value of 

 the horises' labor in the season of the year when 

 wheat is generally thiasliel out. 



That part of ilie wheat stubble which is foulest 

 is bieast-plouiihed and burned in the spring and 

 sovvu with tuini[ip. It. afterwards I ijdves its course 

 in tlie generid sysleni. 



V. Oats and barley afier wheat. — The land 

 gpiieraliy gets two, sometimes three plougliings, — 

 the first as early as possible, the second early in 

 March. When the land is clean, it is raftered or 

 half- ploughed only the first time. The oats are 

 sown, about the end of March, upon the coarsest 

 or roiJ2hest of the land. The seed, of which six 

 bushels are sown to an acre, is drasjged in with 

 the drag-harrow«, and is afterwards harrowed suf- 

 ficiently with the common harrows to cover it. 

 The, mowing of barley should begin and end m 

 April, [n prepariiiL'' the land fortius crop, it re- 

 quires from three to (bur days' work of a team per 

 acre; — the oats requiring more than the barley, 

 because thev are sown upon the roughest part of 

 the land. — The oats and barley are stacked in one 

 of the rick-yards nearest the field, and are built 

 into square ricks ; but all the barns are first filled 

 with barley. They are thrashed with the flail, at 

 two shillings per quarter. 



JBeans. — A very limited quantity of beans are 

 sown, and these afier the wheat-crop, upon that 

 portion ofthe Ibrty arable acres of thethird or best 

 lund of land, on which a peculiar rotation is adopt- 

 ed. The land receives only one ploughing. It 

 is ploughed before Christmas, and the planting is 

 begun as early in the spring as the weather will 

 allow. The mode adopted in this neighborhood 

 is, to plant the beans in rows about fifteen inches 

 u[)art, and about eight inches from hole to hole 

 in the rows, dropping three or (bur beans into each 



