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strewed on, in the proportion of a 

 handful to four plants, the cultiva- 

 tion proceeds sinnilar to that de- 

 scribed for the potatoes — the 

 ploughing continues as often and 

 as long as you please, without dis- 

 turbing the roots of the corn, or 

 breaking it down, deepening the 

 soil and turning up the dead earth 

 to the sides of the ridges, which 

 chocks the growth of weeds great- 

 ly 5 and if the crop is at first tho- 

 roughly hand-weeded, they will 

 give but little trouble afterwards. 



It has not been in my power to 

 make a comparison with a crop 

 cultivated in the common method, 

 but I have had several foremen 

 since ridging has been practised on 

 the farm, who were at first preju- 

 diced against it, but were soon 

 convinced of its utility ; and none 

 of them have estimated the in- 

 crease of product, with the same 

 quantity of manure, at less than 

 one fifth, and the saving of labour 

 full as much. 



" It is probable that on rich 

 soils with plenty of manure, larger 

 crops may be obtained by making 

 the ridges much nearer, but the 

 labour will be more, and the ad- 

 vantage of uncommon deep cul- 

 ture without extra expense must 

 be abandoned ; the importance^ of 

 such culture to the succeeding 

 crops may be illustrated by the 

 following relation. 



" About fifteen months since, I 

 was applied to severally, by two 

 respectable farmers, from an ad- 

 joining town, who are considered 

 as judicious and as thrifty, as any 

 in the county of Norfolk, to be in- 

 iormed how I had managed a piece, 

 99 



the former state of which they had 

 well known to make it prcidiire 

 such a second crop of clover, m 

 such a season of drought that 

 theirs was dried up, and on land 

 naturally more moist, which they 

 considered stronger, aid had been 

 well cultivated and highly manur- 

 ed ? They were told in reply, that 

 ' the land was under the sixth 

 course of rotation, viz.: — 1. po- 

 tatoes; 2. corn; 3. carrots and 

 beets ; 4. corn ; 5. spring wheat, 

 of which it carried thirty bushels 

 of 59 lbs. ; 6. clover, first crop, 

 two tons and an half; second the 

 same season, and which had at- 

 tracted their notice, about one ton 

 to the acre.' That it had from 

 16 to 20 lbs. of clover, and half a 

 bushel of herds'-grass seed to an 

 acre ; one half ploughed in with 

 the wheat, and the remainder sown 

 on the furrow, harrowed in and 

 well rolled : and fiirther^ that no 

 stock were suffered to graze upon 

 it. It should also be stated, that 

 a heavy crop of herds'-grass was 

 produced the last season, and that 

 it gives promise of another; — that 

 the soil is a deep sandy loam, 

 known to many farmers by the 

 name fox-coloured earth, and 

 which some of them are too fearful 

 of turning up ; that when first cul- 

 tivated in the common method, 

 which was some years previous to 

 the present rotation, it did not 

 shew two inches of brown soil, or 

 vegetable mould, and had been 

 considered as poor pasture. And 

 I would observe, that had the land 

 been longer under previous culti- 

 vation, the third and fourth courses 

 might have been omitted, and the 



