NOTES. 



73 



Pasture, where the whole process is fully detailed. The tract likewise contains 

 several useful hints on other rural subjects. 



348 Remark by John Middleton, Esq. 



349 Mr Mason of Chilton, an eminent farmer in the county of Durham, 

 entertains an idea, that clover has a tendency to promote mildew or rust in 

 wheat. A field that had been partly oats, and partly clover, was sown with 

 wheat : the crop was mildewed where the clover had been, but not where the 

 oats had been grown. .This is an additional circumstance, favourable to the 

 idea, that land, for a crop of wheat, ought not to be in too rich a state. A' 

 farmer in the West of England, lately complained, that his rich crops were al- 

 ways mildewed, while his neighbours, whose land was full of couch, and out 

 of condition, did not suffer from that malady. Hence it has grown into a 

 maxim, " That the worst managers, get the best crops, once in seven years." 

 In future, however, that slur on good culture may be prevented, by the dili- 

 gent farmer, paying proper attention to the diseases of grain and the means 

 of preventing them. 



550 Brown's Treatise on Rural Affairs, vol. ii. p. 157. The principal ob- 

 jections to rye-grass are, that it not only exhausts the soil, if suffered to seed, 

 but makes the land too dry and solid. 



551 The quantity of clover-seed sown, is from 10 to 12 Ibs. per statute acre, 

 on dry friable soils ; and from 14 to 18 Ibs. on strong loams or clays, with one 

 peck of perennial rye- grass. Northumberland Report, p. 112. 



352 In America they likewise apply Indian corn, millet and buck-wheat, to 

 the purposes of soiling. 



353 In " The American Farmer," vol. ii. Nos. 23 and 24, there are some 

 valuable remarks on soiling, communicated by the Hon. Josiah Quincy, which 

 .do great credit to that gentleman's knowledge of agriculture, and from which 

 I have extracted several useful hints in the discussion of that subject. 



354 It is singular, that an experiment was reported to the Board of Agri- 

 culture, of 33 head of cattle being soiled from the 20th of May to the 1st of 

 October 1815, on 17& statute acres, in which it is stated, that it would have 

 required 50 acres to have pastured them. The result of Mr Quincy's expe- 

 riment was nearly the same ; for he kept the same amount of stock, by soiling 

 them on 17 acres of land, which had always previously required 50 acres. It 

 is a curious coincidence. 



355 Curwen's Report, p. 8'0. 



356 Young's Calendar, p. 374. This doctrine is controverted by other 

 agriculturists. The value of dung depends more upon the nature and quality 

 of the food, than any other circumstance. 



357 Curwen's Report, p. 81. 



358 The authorities for this important fact, are stated in a note to Sect. 4. 

 259 Curwen's Report, p. 82. 



360 In Flanders, they only sow six pounds of clover-seed to the English 

 acre, for a full soiling crop ; and the cost of the seed at market, is only six- 



, pence per pound. What an encouragement to cultivate a crop, which con- 

 stitutes the groundwork of all good farming ! It is the cost of the seed, 

 which deters the common farmer from having clover, and yet that seed is taxed 

 on importation Raddiff's Report of the Agriculture of Flanders, p. 61. 



361 In dry climates, the practice varies : where the plant is not in a moist 

 state, there is less risk of tedding it. In a good season, it may thus be got 

 thoroughly dry in three or four days. It may be stacked without danger of 

 over heating, on the fourth day j and will come out of the stack in perfect or- 

 der. Communication from Mr Holdich. For the superior mode of making 

 hay in Middlesex, see Appendix, No. VI T, p. 31. 



562 It was introduced from Lancashire, into Scotland, and mentioned in 

 the first edition of the Husbandry of Scotland, printed anno 1812. It was 

 likewise tried by Mr Curwen, with the greatest success. Report, p. 42. 



363 Young's Calendar, p. 545. 



364 Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 180. 565 Ditto, vol. i. p. 182. 

 556 North Riding Report, p. 177. Perhaps it would prevent firing entirely. 



