80 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



crop-bearing parts, and which will be understood by an 

 inspection of the preceding type diagram of a field of wheat 

 cultivated on this system. 



The following is the account given by Mr. Smith of the 

 commencement of his system, and of some of its features as 

 now adopted by him : 



" At the outset of niy farming, fifteen years ago, the field 

 before us was in grass, which I pared and took off the land ; 

 then ploughed it the full depth of the 5 inch staple for a 

 crop of oats, followed by vetches. After this came the first 

 triple-rowed wheat crop with its wide intervals, which I 

 dug one spit deep, bringing only a very few inches of yel- 

 low clay subsoil to the surface. The second year these 

 well-stirred intervals bore the wheat crop, and the stubble 

 was dug in. And thus, year after year, alternately, the 

 same acre of land has had a fallow and a wheat crop too. 

 In the third and fourth years the spade went down a fe\y 

 inches deeper; and so, gradually and regularly, for four 

 years more, till a depth of 16 or 18 inches was reached, 

 when I stayed my hand ; and, after that, was satisfied for 

 the four folloAving years with a single spit. Last year, 

 however, I returned to the double spit and a fresh inch of 

 clay ; and this brings me back to this year's operation, 

 which we are come out to view. 



" The digging, as you see, is two spits deep ; and after 

 the pan was a little stirred, the staple and the stubble were 

 turned upon it, the clods shattered, and the second spit, 

 with its sprinkling of yellow clay, was gently laid upper- 

 most, in such a form that the frost might be felt right 

 through the whole. Look ; you can almost see down to 

 the subsoil. 



" ' And what follows next ? ' These high-ridged inter- 

 vals will lie thus during winter, higher than the tender 

 wheat, and so protecting it, and checking the drifting snow. 

 The winter fallow over, I shall stir and level the ridges with 

 the horse-hoe, well clean the rows and the intervals, keep- 

 ing the surface of the latter constantly open till the wheat 

 is about to flower. Then will come a process peculiar to the 



