10 



texture and inclined 'to be damp, it is neither necessary nor 

 desirable to secure a fine tilth for potatoes ; the sod helps to 

 keep the soil light and open, and if the turf is not thick, 

 ordinary deep ploughing, cultivating and harrowing will 

 bring the field into a suitable condition for ridging up. 



Good Grass on Deep Rich Alluvial Soil. Land of the 

 type last considered may shade into a rich deep loam ; or, as 

 in Lincolnshire, there may be fine silt or warp land now 

 used for fattening cattle, but known to be so well adapted 

 for arable farming, that under present circumstances it 

 should be broken up. In the coming autumn it will be 

 necessary to sow wheat on a large part of the stubble land 

 which, in ordinary circumstances, would be planted with 

 potatoes, and to replace the area lost it will be necessary to 

 grow potatoes on this rich grass land, which experience has 

 proved to be so well suited to the crop. Deep alluvial land 

 may best be prepared for growing potatoes by ploughing to 

 a depth of from JO to 12 inches. This depth is secured by 

 employing two ploughs following each other in the same 

 furrow. One takes off the surface to a depth of 2 inches 

 or 4 inches, turning the turf into the bottom of the deep 

 furrow left by the other plough, which opens a furrow of 

 from 6 to 8 inches. The thick turf of this rich land is thus 

 buried at a depth at which it will rot and will not dry out 

 the soil, and, in contrast with the medium land last referred 

 to, x the potatoes are grown in the rich loam which underlies 

 the turf, not in a mixture of turf and loam. 



(ii.) Heavy Loams and Clay Soils. 



Second-rate Grass. Much inferior grass land on heavy 

 loams and clay soils exists in the Midlands and south of 

 England. Heavy loams and clays may be managed in the 

 way recommended for medium loams. They want earlier 

 ploughing, because more exposure to the weather is 

 necessary, and, if late ploughed, more cross-cultivating, 

 ploughing or harrowing and rolling will be wanted than in 

 the case of lighter soil ; if thin in the turf they may benefit 

 by cross ploughing in spring. 



As regards the heavier classes of clay soil in the warmer 

 parts of the country, there is general agreement that they 

 should have a summer fallow, or at any rate a bastard fallow, 

 before an attempt is made to grow wheat. At the latest the 

 work should be taken in hand immediately after the hay 

 harvest. Steam tackle is of special value. The surface 

 should be torn up by the cultivator and exposed to the sun 

 so as to dry out and kill the turf and mellow the surface 

 layer of clay. The turf on land of this description is usually 

 full of weeds, especially -of bent (Agrostis], which unless* 

 killed would prove very troublesome in arable land ; it is, 

 therefore, necessary to dry the turf on the surface, whereas 



