33 



wheat were cut, carted, and stacked in six clays ; this was 

 getting on with wheat harvest more expeditiously, perhaps, 

 than is in the power of any other person in the kingdom. I 

 saw, at the same time, 450 acres of turnips, of different 

 sorts, and mangel wurzel, in which Mr. Coke challenged 

 me to find a single weed, excepting some that might have 

 just sprung up out of the ground. I could not see one 

 weed that was three or four inches long ; this was such 

 clean farming, on a large scale, as probably could not be 

 seen in any part of the world. 



THRASHING. I know of no instrument now in use 

 for any purpose whatever, in which there has been (us in 

 the flail), no alteration in the make of it, for one hundred, 

 or more years. Thrashing by the flail is a very tedious 

 operation, but living in a populous parish, where there has 

 ever been a great want of employment for the labourers, I 

 have never made use of a machine, excepting at those times 

 when my men had rather do any thing else than thrash 

 with the flail. An ingenious mechanic of a village in my 

 neighbourhood, has invented a machine of very simple con- 

 struction, with which four men, two to turn and two to feed 

 it, will thrash, with ease, six quarters of wheat a-day. As 

 it will find employment in the barn for my men, in bad 

 weather, I have bespoken one, and fancy 1 shall like it 

 much. Those who sell straw will probably think it breaks 

 it too much. 



MANURE is the chief sinew for carrying on good 

 farming. Sir Humphrey Davy, and other scientific persons, 

 have said that the quality of manure is much injured by the 

 common practice of throwing it up into dunghills, and thus 

 creating so strong a fermentation as to cause the gases, 

 which are the nutritive parts of it, to escape. It may be 

 so ; still, I think farm-yard manure, in which there are 

 sure to be the seeds of weeds, ought to undergo a fermen- 

 tation to prevent their growth. Manure made from wheat- 

 straw by stall-feeding beasts, I do not object to being 

 immediately put on the land ; but not that made at the 

 barn-door, in which there are sure to be quantities of the 

 seeds of weeds. All refuse that has vegetable matter in it 



