] 103 J 



it is not so. Every fortnight or three weeks brings a supply of 

 untainted food, which gratifies their palate, and a change of scene 

 amuses them and increases their comfort and enjoyment. 



The only manure ever put on these lands is the contents of the 

 drains and ditches, and this, with judicious management in the 

 method of grazing, is sufficient to keep them in unabating ferti- ' 

 lity. 



Some of this clay land, when tilled, has been known to produce 

 ten or twelve successive crops of wheat, without an intervening 

 fallow or fallow crop. I was shewn a field in the parish of Mark, 

 which had growing in it the nineteenth crop of wheat, and I verily 

 think the produce will not be less than fifty Winchester bushels 

 per acre. No manure had been put on it during the whole time, 

 save the contents arising from the cleansing of the ditches. The 

 stubble was mown every year and carried off, two ploughings only 

 were given it, after which the wheat was sown in the months of 

 November or December, under furrow in eight furrow ridges, 

 after the rate of i\ bushels per acre, chopping the clods and 

 smoothing the surface of the ridge with a spade. 



The average produce per year for the whole eighteen years was 

 estimated to exceed thirty-five bushels per acre. 



This astonishing fertility of soil can only be afcribed to the in- 

 vigorating principles of the saline particles with which the land is 

 impregnated. They enable it to produce a succession of crops, 

 which in common land would reduce the soil to a mere caput 

 mortuum. 



Notwithstanding this encouragement to tillage, the plough lies 

 idle, and nineteen parts out of twenty remain in grass ; though it 

 is apparent that the value of the land in fee may be gained in a 

 few years. 



G P.AZ1NG MANAGEMENT. 



THERE are two methods of fatting oxen, the one called sum- 

 mer, and the other winter fatting; the first is thought the most 

 profitable and accompanied with the least rifque. 



In the first method. They are purchased in February, and are 

 for the most part of the Devon sort, bred in the lower part of So- 



O 2 mersetshire. 



