322 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



clover-seed will sow an acre, and this at lOd. a pound 

 is 7s, 6d., and the rye-grass Is. Gd. more — in all 9s. for 

 an acre ; whilst to sow an acre with hay-seeds takes 

 eighteen or twenty firkins, often costing Is. a firkin — 

 say 18s. an acre, just double the price of the clover and 

 rye-grass. I know that by saving your own hay-seeds, 

 you think you get them cheaper, but this is not so 

 really. But another objection to hay -seeds is, that 

 when they are saved from ordinary land, which is 

 not very clean, there are always a great many seeds 

 of weeds amongst them, and these being sown with 

 the hay-seed, grow up and injure the next crop of 

 wheat very much. But clover-seed, on the contrary, 

 has no seeds of weeds amongst it, and grows so thick 

 on the land, that it stifles and kills the weeds which 

 spring up ; and the roots of the clover, when ploughed 

 into the land, serve as a great help of manure for it. 

 It is besides well known, that to have land under good 

 clover for one year, rests it and refreshes it as much as 

 •f it was three years under poor grass ; so that I have 

 no doubt, but that by growing clover and rye-grass, 

 instead of hay-seed, you will find your land will yield 

 better crops of wheat than it now does. When all 

 these benefits of clover are added together, I really 

 wonder that any farmer will sow any more hay-seed. 

 It is like throwing money (or what in a farmer's 

 eyes should be still worse, manure) into the sea, to 

 do so. 



But I must now go on to tell you why I think tur- 

 nips a more valuable crop for farmers, even than clover, 

 of which you begin to feel the benefit, and which I fully 

 admit is a very valuable crop too. But I say turnijjs 

 are more valuable. 



