PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT OF SOILS. 45 



the clover erishes or ley should be well manured on the 

 surface with farm-yard compost, or from 3 to 4 cwt. of 

 guano. Care must be taken not to allow the sheep to 

 nibble the plants too closely, whilst they should not be 

 allowed to pasture later than October. When the clover 

 crop has to be grazed off the same land, it is especially de- 

 sirable, in the case of the grass seeds, to defer the grazing 

 till the plants are 8 to 10 inches high. The greater the 

 surface vegetation of the seeds the more nourishment they 

 draw from the atmosphere. Indeed, every effort should be 

 made to increase, by every possible means, the amount of 

 clover vegetation above the surface, and the corresponding 

 roots below, so that an increase of food for the coming 

 wheat crop may be secured. 



33. The ploughing of the rape and turnip or mangold 

 wurzel erishes must be of a shallower description than that 

 on the clover ley. The ploughing should, for wheat, in all 

 cases be in the direction of the field's slope, for each furrow, 

 if well turned, acts as a drain. And where the soil is very 

 wet and tenacious, with a flat situation, it will be advisable 

 to plough it up in beds of 13 feet wide, these being gra- 

 dually formed by a rounded slope from the centre, or "bye," 

 to the bottom furrow. After ploughing, the rape erishes 

 will be sufficiently prepared for the seed by a double stroke 

 of the harrow in the direction of the furrows, the drill after- 

 wards proceeding across them. The leys will probably re- 

 quire more harrowing, but in all cases the amount of harrow- 

 ing will increase or diminish with the dryness or wetness of 

 the season. These operations being all completed, the fur- 

 rows are all cleared, and free vent made for the water. 

 Other furrows must also be made through every hollow. 

 Mr. Pratt gives some notes as to the varieties of seed 

 wheat, the times and mode of sowing, &c., &c., but these 

 points we have already discussed. 



