[ 2 7 ] 



5th Year — Barley and clover or marie grass, 

 Produce 48 bushels. 



6th Year — Clover or marie grass. 



When mowed, produce from 30 to 40 cvvt. per acre. 



7th Year — Clover or marie grass fed. 



Defective and ruinous to the land as the three first year's rotation 

 of crops may appear, it is nevertheless with little variation uni- 

 formly pursued ; and with little abatement of produce is renewed 

 for another seven years succession. Even a third is carried through 

 by many farmers, accompanied with fallowing for some of the 

 wheat crops, and assisting the land by a sprinkling of Barton 

 manure. Even a fourth succession, with less wheat and more 

 barley, is carried on by a few considerable farmers in the district ; 

 but from the levity of the soil, and the difficulty of keeping 

 weeds under, the crops fail notwithstanding a more liberal use of 

 Barton manure. 



A system of cropping, so very perverse and erroneous, carried 

 to such a length on land rented at thirty shillings per acre, must 

 involve the farmer in a yearly loss, and cannot but astonish every 

 one ; more especially if it be recollected that this very land is 

 susceptible of restoration to its former vigor and fertility at the. 

 moderate expence of ll. 18s. 8d. per acre. 



The farms in this district are from 50I. to 300I. per annum, and 

 pasture in the ratio of five sixths throughout the district. The 

 contiguity of the parishes to Bath, not exceeding a mean distance 

 of nine miles, accessible by good roads, and which affords a 

 market of almost unlimited consumption are circumstances pecu- 

 liarly favourable to dairies. 



Butter there for some years past has averaged the price of nine- 

 pence and ten-pence per pound. It is no wonder therefore that 

 dairies engross a great share of the grass lands. 



Marie grass is the spontaneous production of the marie land. It 

 was first noticed and collected fifty or sixty years ago by a Mr. 

 James, who lived on a large farm belonging to the Marquis of 

 Bath, in the parish of Chilcompton. By his assiduity in preserving 

 and propagating the seed, in the course of a few years it became 

 common, and has been considered ever since as a valuable substi- 

 tute for red or broad clover, to which it bears rather a strikino- 



O 



analogy, 



