176 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



dened by frost, is less trampled or consolidated; hence, 

 when ploughed, it is loose, and very seldom grows so bulky 

 a crop as when well trodden in soft weather. It almost 

 appears that, on one hand, the manure of sheep, in the form 

 of dung and urine, is trodden and incorporated in the soil ; 

 on the other hand, it is deposited on the very surface, ex- 

 posed to the atmosphere, and so the very essence drenched 

 away with the rain. 



"Are there not many farmers who cannot remember 

 their fed-oif turnip-fields presenting, whilst growing a crop 

 of corn, an uneven resemblance that is, some folds ap- 

 pearing better than the rest, and at harvest turning off al- 

 most double the quantity of sheaves than other parts ? Yet 

 the turnip-crop was the same, and the same number of 

 sheep kept thereon ; but the weather was not the same, so 

 that the sheep could not act with that mechanical effect 

 and benefit upon the soil. It is likewise worthy of re- 

 mark that in autumn, when the land is ploughed for 

 wheat, so that the soil will tread firmly under the horses' 

 feet, the wheat will withstand the winter better than when 

 it is put into the ground in a loose and dry bed of the 

 chalk formation." 



It is right, however, to state that the view maintained 

 in the above and which is probably that of nine-tenths 

 of the practical farmers of the kingdom was not concurred 

 in by other writers who took part in the discussion, one of 

 whom took special objection to the roller as being at all 

 likely to be useful in land totally unfitted to receive a 

 horse, let alone a heavy roller, on its adhesive cloggy sur- 

 face; a condition of land which is too often met with in 

 the winter and spring months in this country. 



B. 



It has been a subject of frequent remark that, notwith- 

 standing all our advance in the theory or what may be 

 called the science of agriculture, the details of our practice 

 stands very much at the point it stood at many years ago. 

 So much truth is there in this, that a very able and acute 



