The Hiisbandi'-y of the Period. 245 



fold on tlie turnips, " On very dry lands," says Young, " many 

 farmers, for the sake of manuring for barley, will eat tlie crop 

 on the land, herdling off a certain quantity for the flock ; and 

 as fast as they eat them pretty clean, remove the hurdles, 

 farther " ; but this method, he says, should only be practised 

 " on lands that are perfectly and absolutely dry, otherwise the 

 sheep poach it" (i'ic). He might have added that the chief 

 secret of success for the ensuing barley crop was for the plough 

 to follow up daily behind the fold, so as to cover the dung- 

 before its chief fertilising constituents become evaporated. As 

 soon as the turnip land was cleared, it was got into a fine tilth 

 by means of the plough and harrow, and six bushels per acre 

 of seed harrowed in, either in March or April. On heavy land 

 barley succeeded a summer fallow, the land being laid up in 

 three-feet ridges well water-furrowed for the winter, dung 

 carted on during frosts and left in heaps till sowing time ; the 

 main object of all of which was to reduce the treading of the 

 draught cattle at the spring tillage to a minimum, and thus 

 prevent the ground from becoming poached. 



Clover invariably followed the barley crop. Twenty pounds 

 of it per acre were either harrowed in with or upon the barley 

 seed, or were sown before the roller after the barley was up. 

 The latter process (still in vogue) prevented any deterioration of 

 the grain crop, owing to an over-luxuriant growth of the small 

 seeds during a damp time. Young, however, would have 

 obviated this danger by treating, when the season turned out 

 wet, the combined crops as forage, and mowing them for hay 

 just after the barley came into ear. Such a suggestion tends 

 either to weaken our faith in Trussler's high estimate of the 

 profits of this crop, or to prove that the value of good malting 

 barley was considerably lower, or that of hay considerably 

 higher, than at the present date. A field, then as now, was 

 often kept under clover for more than one year. This practice 

 was supposed to answer the same purposes as a bare-fallow, 

 and was considered rightly to be the best preparation for wheat 

 or oats. Two bushels of " ray grass " were often added to 

 twelve pounds of the clover seed as a good mixture for light 

 soils. Such a crop was said to be able to afford a " fine bite for 



