288 ON THE SCARLET TREFOIL. 



that can be broug-lit against the tares is tlie seed; some 

 agTiculturists sow three bushels per acre. I will, however, 

 only reckon two, at 6s. Gd. per bushel, — 13.*;. Now, let us 

 see what the trifolium will cost. Here is also no extra 

 expense beyond the seed. The averag-e growth of the seed 

 with me has been 15 bushels per acre; if cut when the straw 

 is green, which it may be without injuring the seed, thrashed 

 the next or following day, and the straw immediately stacked, 

 it will pay all the workmanship. When it is also considered 

 that the crop is generally clear from the land the first week 

 in July, leaving the best months of summer for fallowing, 

 61. per acre is a full remuneration to the agriculturist for 

 the crop ; this brings the seed to Ss. per bushel, or 2s. per 

 peck; thus the farmer ma}^ have an acre of the trifolium 

 by the end of April, for Qs. less than one-fourth part of the 

 cost of his washy tares. Tares at all times are better physic 

 than food, and in wet seasons they are for horses that which 

 seamen and soldiers designate bad small beer — swipes. As 

 the potato occupies the lowest step of degradation as food for 

 civilized man, so do tares for the brute ; they are French- 

 men's water-soup diluted. 



As soon as the scarlet trefoil begins to blossom, put two 

 or three horses to it in one yai'd, and the same number on 

 tares in another ; keep them thus a month, no further proof 

 will be necessary of the superiority of the trifolium. I will 

 grant it is not so certain a crop as the tares, but what does 

 this amount to 'I I grow 40 acres of wheat a year, and have 

 the same quantity of fallow. If I sow the whole 40 acres 

 with trifolium, and 20 acres fail (very unlikely, by-the-by), 

 on this 20 acres I lose Ss. per acre ; the 20 acres that remain 

 will pay me tenfold for the whole. I care nothing about the 

 20 acres lost, the land is ready for fallow or turnips, as it was 

 ultimately intended. 



I have had about three waggon-loads of trifolium stover per 

 acre, thei-efore, exclusive of cutting and getting up, it cost 

 me Is. per waggon-load; if I lose half the crop, as above 

 stated, it costs 2s., and I am convinced that the land v/as 

 not 2d. the worse for it. This is no wild theory ; it is the 

 ex])erience of eighteen years. If it can be proved that the 

 land is the worse for this green croj), then some charge 

 ought to be made against it beyond the price of the seed ; 

 but I contend it is not. I have grown it side by side with 

 the long fallow, the same with the tares, and I could see no 

 difference in the following crops, except that my clovers 



