SEPT.] AUTUMNAL MAXAC: OP NEW LAYS. 



before the sheep enter, success is almost certain. At 

 least I have found the benefit of thus thickening new 

 lays in seasons not peculiarly favourable. 



Should, however, a total failure from any unforeseen 

 cause take place, the better conduct will be, in fields that 

 were sown in the spring, to clear the corn as early as pos- 

 sible, and ploughing once, harrow in fresh seeds imme- 

 diately ; this will succeed very well if they arc got in iu 

 the month of August, or early in September]; the sooner 

 the better : and in this case the land should be very well 

 rolled in Oclober, in a dry season. If the failure hap- 

 pens in laqd sown in August, it should have three 

 earths in dry weather in the spring, and the grass- 

 seeds re-sown with buck -wheat in May : that is not 

 a crop for clays and wet loams, but I have known it 

 succeed well in a dry summer ; should the season be 

 wet, it will give little seed, and should be mown when 

 in blossom for soiling cows. It is an ameliorating 

 plant, never exhausting any soil, and therefore pre- 

 serves in the land the fertility gained by the operations 

 previous to the former sowing. And I may here gene- 

 rally observe, that grass-seeds of all sorts, and on all 

 soils, never succeed bettcy than with buck-wheat, of 

 which not more than one bushel an acre should be 

 sown. There is a district in Norfolk where buck is 

 highly valued for this object. It is a profitable article 

 of cultivation on the very poorest barren sands. 



AUTUMNAL MANAGEMENT OF NEW LAYS, 



This is a point of considerable consequence ; and in 



proportion to the moisture of the soil. All trampling 



of cattle and horses is pernicious, for the soil, after a 



crop of corn, or after the tillage of a fallow, is very 



H h 4 tender j 



