876 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



very gentle warmth, is usually perceptible, both in the field-ricks and in the stacks, for a few days after 

 they are built. But this is a quite different thing from that intentional heating, carried so far, in many 

 instances, as to terminate in conflagration. 



5558. Tlie after-growth or second crop qf clover is vigorous or weak, according to the proportion of clover 

 plants to rye-grass, to the time when the first crop was cut, and to the moisture and warmth of the season. 

 When the first cutting has been made early for soiling, there will sometimes be three cuttings in one 

 season. The first of these after-cuttings may be made into hay, and sometimes the second ; but in general 

 both arfe consumed by soiling or pasturing, unless in some dry warm districts, as Norfolk, and parts of 

 Suffolk, Kent, &c., where the second growth is left to ripen its seed. In the northern counties the second 

 crop is seldom made into hay, owing to the difficulty of getting it thoroughly dried at a late period of 

 summer, when other more urgent operations usually employ all the labourers of a farm. If it is cut for 

 this purpose, the best method of saving it is to mix it up with straw, which will absorb a part of its 

 juices. It is often cut green, as a part of the soiling system ; or, where a sheep stock is kept, pastures by 

 the old ewes, or other sorts, that are to be fattened the ensuing winter on turnips. 



5559. In consuming clover and other herbage plarits by pasturing, or eating down on the spot, three 

 methods have been adopted : tethering, hurdling, and free pasturage. 



5560. Tethering may be considered a rude practice, and is chiefly confined to the north of Scotland and 

 Ireland. In The Agricultural Report of Aberdeenshire it is stated, that there are some cases where the 



Elan of tethering can be practised with more profit than even soiling. In the neighbourhood of Peter- 

 ead, for instance, they tether milch cows on their grass fields, in a regular and systematic method ; 

 moving each tether forward in a straight line, not above one foot at a time, so as to prevent the cows from 

 treading on the grass that is to be eaten; care being always taken to move the tether forward, like a 

 person cutting clover with a scythe, from one end of the field to the other. In this way, a greater num- 

 ber of cows can be kept, on the same quantity of grass, than by any other plan ; except where it grows 

 high enough to be cut, and given them green in houses. In one instance, the system was carried to great 

 perfection, by a gentleman who kept a few sheep upon longer tethers, following the cows. Sometimes, 

 also, he tethered horses afterwards upon the same field, which prevented any possible waste ; for the tufls 

 of grass produced by the dung of one species of animal will be eaten by those of another kind without 

 reluctance. This system was peculiarly calculated for the cow-feeders in Peterhead ; as, from the small- 

 ness of their holdings, they could not afford to keep servants to cut, or horses to carry home, the grass to 

 their houses, to be consumed in a green state. {Code.) 



5561. In hurdling off clovers or herbage crops, a portion of the field is enclosed by hurdles, in which 

 sheep are confined ; and as the crop is consumed, the pen is changed to a fresh place, until the whole is 

 fed off. This practice is very extensively adopted at Holkham, and is peculiarly calculated for light and 

 dry soils. Its advantages are, that tlie grass is more economically consumed ; that the stock thrive better, 

 having daily a fresh bite ; and that the dung falls, being more concentrated, is more likely to be of use. 



5562. In the common pasturing of clover, the stock are introduced into the field earlier than in tether- 

 ing or hurdling, in order to avoid the loss that would be sustained by cattle or sheep treading ad libitum 

 on tall herbage. Indeed, the principal advantage of pasturing clovers is, that sheep and lambs may be 

 turned on them more early than on common grass-lands. Sometimes this advantage is taken for a month 

 or six weeks, in the beginning of summer, and the field afterwards shut up for a crop of hay; but more 

 frequently the red clovers are only mown. When white and yellow clovers are sown, the herbage is some- 

 times not mown at all, but pastured for three years or more j and sometimes a little red clover being sown 

 along with these, a crop of hay is taken the first year. 



5563. The produce of clover-hay, without any mixture of rye-grass, on the best soils 

 is from two to three tons per acre, and in this state in the London market it generally 

 sells 20 per cent, higher than meadow-hay, or clover and rye-grass mixed. The weight 

 of hay from clover and rye-grass varies, according to the soil and the season, from one 

 ton to three tons per English acre, as it is taken from the tramp-ricks ; but after being 

 stacked, and kept till spring, the weight is found to be diminished twenty-five or thirty 

 per cent, 



5564. The value of clover and rye-grass hay, in comparison with the straw of beans 

 or peas, may be in the proportion of three to two ; and with the finest straw of corn 

 crops, in the proportion of two to one. One acre of red or broad clover will go as far 

 in feeding horses or black cattle as three of ordiuaiy pasture ; and when it is cut occa- 

 sionally, and given to them fresli, it will, probably, go still much farther, as no part of 

 it is lost by being trodden down. With the exception of lucern, and the herbage of 

 rich marshes, there is no crop by which so much stock can be supported as by clover. 

 It may be profitably employed in fattening sheep in spring, and with this food they will 

 soon be ready for the butcher. Afterwards, a crop of hay may be got, and two or three 

 weeks after the hay has been taken off, sheep intended to be fattened on turnips may be 

 turned in, and kept there, until the turnips are ready for them. 



f.r 5565. The nutritive products of clovers 'ivi\\ he ^o\xnA in i\\Q to\i\c. (5520.) 

 ,0f'5566. The saving of clover seed is attended with considerable labour and difficulty. 

 ' Clover will not perfect its seeds, if saved for that purpose early in the year ; therefore it 

 is necessary to take off the first growth either by feeding or with the scythe, and to 

 depend for the seed on those heads that are produced in the autumn. Seed -clover turns 

 out to good account in those years when the crops are not injured by the blight, which 

 is often fatal to them, or by the rains in the autumn, which sometimes prove their de- 

 struction ; for the time of harvesting this seed falling out late when rainy weather may 

 be expected, renders it, on that account, very tedious. 



.' 5.567. When the first crop is fed off, it is eaten till about the end of May, frequently by ewes and lambs ; 

 'iWd this is understood to be an advantageous practice, because the land is less exhausted, and the green 

 "Ibod is of great value for stock in the spring months. It is not uncommon, however, to cut the first growth 

 fof a hay crop, and this should be done earlier than usual. The growth thus reserved for seed must be 

 suffered to remain till the husks become perfectly brown, when it is cut and harvested in the usual 

 ma:nner, leaving it on the field till it is very dry and crisp, that the seeds may become more fully hardened ; 

 it may then be laid up dry, to be threshed out at the farmer's convenience. Much labour and expense arc 

 necessary in separating the seed from the cai>sule or seetl-coatj esjiecially when it is cHected by threshing, 

 which seldom costs less than from five to six or seven shillings per bushel, Dy the use of mills the work 

 may be done much cheaper, 



