164 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



definitely ; and sometimes being mowed for a number of years. 

 One field I saw that had been mowed eight years, and having 

 received a dressing of 30 cwt. of bones, promised fair yet to bear 

 heavy swaths. Mowing lands are usually top-dressed at the end 

 of the second year, and afterwards every second or third year. 

 All the homestead dung is commonly reserved for this purpose, 

 and all other manure is purchased from the towns. Guano for 

 turnips and wheat is coming into general use ; some think very 

 profitably, others have been disappointed. For wheat, it is 

 applied at the seed sowing, and sometimes again as a top-dressing 

 in the spring ; but in a dry season it is thought that this second 

 application has done more harm than good. Guano has been a 

 good deal tried as a top-dressing for pastures, and it has been 

 said to improve the quality of cheese when so used. The imme- 

 diate effect upon grass, when applied in the spring, is always very 

 advantageous ; but later in the summer, particularly if the season 

 is dry, the good effect disappears, and sometimes the result is 

 unfavorable. 



Of course the round of crop varies according to every farmer's 

 notion. What I have described is as common as any, though not 

 probably among the best farmers. Another crop is beans, which 

 is introduced between either of those I have mentioned, sometimes 

 at the head. Not uncommonly the first crop is wheat, the ground 

 having been summer-fallowed. Wheat is drilled or sowed broad- 

 cast most commonly sowed in this county and is either plowed 

 or harrowed in, opinions varying as to which is best. My own 

 experience on a stiff soil is decidedly in favor of plowing in. 



Laborers. Wages, as they have been reported to me, vary 

 much, and unaccountably. I should think the average for able- 

 bodied men as day-laborers, working and receiving pay only in 

 days that commence fair, was $2.25 a week, perhaps averaging 

 thirty-three cents a day. The rent of a laborer's cottage, with a 



