48 , A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



amount; the land, therefore, without assuming: any extraordi- 

 nary degree of fertility or management, should yield, upon an 

 average, at least 4 tons of manure per acre ; to which if be 

 added the extraneous substances which may, with due care, 

 be collected without expense from the roads, the ditches, the 

 ponds, and from refuse of every kind about the house and 

 premises, the acreable amount should be amply sufficient for a 

 full supply of manure once during every course of the four- 

 years' system of husbandry. 



We fear, however, that, looking to the system of cultivation 

 pursued on most farms, the quantity of manure produced falls 

 far short of that amount. JNIuch, indeed, depends upon its 

 judicious management, for a good farmer will accumulate per- 

 haps nearly twice as much dung as his more indolent and 

 inattentive neighbour, and apply it in better condition to th-e 

 land, though their opportunities are, in this respect, the -same. 

 No means should, therefore, be neglected to supply the defi- 

 ciency; in which view, besides the extension of the soiling 

 system, we should strongly recommend that corn crops should 

 be cut as low as possible, so as to increase the bulk of straw. 

 When the stubble is left high and ploughed in, it retards the 

 operation, renders the land foul, and is, on some soils, injurious 

 by rendermg them too open. It is, indeed, in many places 

 mown, and converted into walls for the comfort of the cattle. 

 In Derbyshire a paring plough is used, by which the roots of 

 the corn and weeds are cut, and the stubble and other stuiT is 

 then carried home to be trodden into muck; but the produce 

 does not pay the expense, and it has been found a more econo- 

 mical practice, when it can be carried into effect, to burn the 

 stubble on the ground, by which insects and the seeds of weeds 

 are destroyed. Even when raked up, it has been considered 

 advisable to spread and burn it on the land, as it is thought to 

 have a great effect hi preventing the ravages of the fly on 

 turnips.* 



Compost. — We have already observed upon the expediency 

 of mixing the bottoms and crusts of dung-pies with the other 

 materials of which they are composed when they are turned 

 over; but the quantity may not only be greatly augmented by 



* See the Furveys of Essex, vol. i. p. 325; Ilimtingdonshire, p. 128; 

 Derbyshire, vol. ii., pp. 121, 131, lOO. In a work puhlished about a century 

 ayo, and ascribed to Lord Belhaven, it is asserted that the goodness of the 

 E:ist l.oihiaii crofjs was attributable to the length of their stubbles. 'A 

 t'ood crop of corn makes a {rood stubble ; and a good stubble is the equalest 

 auukiiii: thai can be given.'— The Countryman's Rudiments, p. 23. 



