314 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



find in connection with it, that laborers' wages are lower probably 

 than anywhere else in England seven, and sometimes six, shil- 

 lings ($1.68 and $1.44) being all that a man usually receives for 

 a week's labor. 



We saw seven plows at work together, and thirteen swarths 

 of lucerne falling together before thirteen mowers, thirteen women 

 following and shaking it out. It is not uncommon to have four 

 or five hundred acres of wheat or two or three hundred of tur- 

 nips growing on one farm. One down farmer has eight hundred 

 in wheat annually. The prairie farmer would not despise such 

 crops. 



As there is no chalk soil in America, I will not dwell long up- 

 on its peculiarities or the system of agriculture adopfed upon it. 

 The manner in which the downs are brought into cultivation 

 may, however, afford some hints of value for the improvement 

 of other poor, thin soils. "The sheepfold and artificial manures 

 are looked upon as the mainstay of the Wiltshire down farmer. 

 When the downs are first broken up, the land is invariably pared 

 and burnt, and then sown with wheat. Barley is usually taken 

 after wheat, and this is followed by turnips eaten upon the ground. 

 and succeeded by wheat. It then falls into the usual four or five- 

 field course, a piece being laid out annually in sainfoin, to rest for 

 several years before being broken up again. The sheepfold is 

 shifted daily until the whole space required to be covered [i. e. 

 manured] is gone over. Turnips and other green crops are con- 

 sumed where they grow, which saves the labor of taking home 

 the crop and fetching back the manure. The sheep are made 

 the manure carriers for any portion of the land on which it is 

 thought desirable to apply it. Much of the corn crop is stacked 

 in the distant fields, as it would be almost impossible to carry it 

 home so far, with the despatch necessary in harvest operations. 

 In many cases it is thrashed where stacked, a traveling steam- 



