FARMERS' REGISTER-LIGHT SOILS, &c. 



711 



grass annually; but I will state what I am doing 

 in my own case. 



I am now laying; to rest a farm of 500 acres, 

 which has for the last twenty-five years been under 

 a reg^ular rotation of five shifts, and it is my inten- 

 tion to leave it in grass for five years, taking care 

 that each division, as it is sown out, shall be in the 

 highest condition into which I can afford to put it, 

 for it is well known that a light soil laid out to 

 grass in poor condition will rather deteriorate than 

 improve. Having a breeding flock of sheep on an 

 adjoining farm, 1 propose extending this profitable 

 stock to sucli a number as will enable me to pas- 

 ture all my j)ermanent grass, for the first year at 

 least, with sheep; afterwards, it will be matter of 

 calculation whether I shall continue to use the 

 whole of my grass or let a part, so as to lessen tlie 

 risk of stocking the whole. This process of lay- 

 ing out my form, will, of course, require (ive years. 

 I will gradually be reducing my working expen- 

 diture until the last year of the five, when I will 

 again have to muster my working strength; and 

 that I expect to be well enabled to do by a sale on 

 the ground of the corn crop on the last sown out 

 division, — the manure which that crop should pro- 

 duce not being wanted the following season.* 



I may here remark, that great cai'e should be 

 taken to select the most approved grasses suited to 

 the various soils, and not to be sparing in the 

 quantity of seeds. I would also strongly recom- 

 mend the frequent use of a heavy roller in spi-ing 

 and autumn, giving, as often as circumstances may 

 require, a light topdressing of any comj)ost (or 

 even pulverized soil of a different quality from the 

 field on which it is laid) previous to the spring 

 rolling. This will be Ibund to invigorate and 

 thicken the grass in an extraordinary degree. 



After this process of resting the soil is completed, 

 I anticipate a full reward for all my labor and pa- 

 tience, by seeing the land again in a firm and con- 

 solidated state, quite fit to produce the alternate 

 crops we were accustomed to thirty jears ago ; 

 and, I trusl, I shall be warranted in breaking up 

 my lea with a crop of wheat, or at any rate with 

 barley. 



I propose ploughing the lea for wheat or barley, 

 not in the old way, — of giving two furrows, and 

 harrowing till the soil is sufficiently reduced for 

 these crops, — but by one seed-furrow with the 



plough, followed by that invakndile implement on 

 light soils — the presser, an instrument not so well 

 known in Scotland as it ought to be. I subjoin a 

 drawing for tlie information of any of my brother 

 farmers who may wish to try the presser. From 

 its simplicity and low price (varying from 51. to 

 71. according to the weight required) it is within 

 the power of all to purchase and work it. 



A very striking instance of the utility of this 

 machine was exhibited on a field belonging to my 

 friend Captain Barclay AUardiceof Ury,who last 

 season broke up a piece of grass-land near his 

 mansion house, supposed to have lain out about a 

 hundred years. It was on a strong soil, and re- 

 quired four horses to work the plough, wiiich was 

 followed by the presser, leaving the work in such 

 a finished state, that although Ca[)lain Barclay's 

 intention was to sow the field with oats after the 

 preparation of a m' inter's exposure, he was imluced 

 to try a crop of wheat, which succeeded beyond 

 his expectation, having reaped fully fifty bushels 

 per English acre, while the probability is, that if 

 the field had been sown in spring with oats, they 

 would all have rotted. 



The mode of working this implement is very 

 simple. A presser is required for every two 

 ploughs, the horse that draws it following the last 

 plough of the two in the furrow, which so regu- 

 lates the presser that it leaves the land exactly as 

 if it had been gone over with a drill-sowing ma- 

 chine ; the furrow-slices are laid flat at the bottom, 

 and the surfiice left more like a field of fallow than 

 grass land. By affixing a sowing-box to the 

 presser, which could be very easily done, the whole 

 process of ploughing, pressing and sowing, could 

 be going on at the same time, and by a double 

 tui'n of the harrows, the operation could be com- 

 ])leteu without the usual risks of a change of 

 weather, to which in this variable climate we are 

 liable in every sowing season. 



I have used the presser for two seasons, and cah 

 with confidence recommend it on all light soils, 

 with every sort of corn-crop. It is an invention 

 which we owe to our English neighbors. It has 

 been in use in many counties in England for sevCT- 

 ral years past. 



I shall now give a detailed description of the 

 presser, hoping that the few hints which I havq 

 given, may be us6ful to farmers of light soils. 



The scale of this figure is a quarter of an inch to the foot. 



* We would here suge:est to our friend, our present 

 correspondent, whose opinion of the deterioration of 

 light lands being caused by too frequent ploughing is 

 correct^that instead of raising the means of working 

 the farm when the grass was broken up, by selling the 

 straw of any portion of the corn-crop, he should rather 



lay by annually for that purpose a portion of tlie money 

 which was drawn from the land in the sliape of beef 

 and mutton. It grieves us to the heart to see a farm 

 robbed of its straw, under any pretence but that of 

 vicinity to a large town, from which large supplies of 

 extraneous manure may be obtained in exchange. — Ed. 



