Y * f t> if f " a ,-i ;> v 



2-' THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL [CH. 



The surface cultivation needs much more frequent attention. 

 The work begins in the autumn and on medium or heavy land 

 should start as early as possible. It is no exaggeration to say 

 that much of the success of the management of the soil depends on 

 getting the autumn cultivations well forward so that the ploughing 

 is finished before the winter rain makes the land too wet for work. 

 Late ploughing is costly and always liable to make bad work. 

 Early cultivation, on the other hand, brings the soil into good 

 condition for the autumn action of soil bacteria. 



Everyone knows the good effects of fallowing land: how the 

 weeds are killed, the tilth improved, and the plant enabled to 

 make an unusually vigorous start. Dead fallows are nowadays 

 out of the question, but a great deal can be done by getting the 

 land broken up as early as possible and giving it a few weeks 

 fallow. If the aftermath of the seeds lay is poor it may be ad- 

 visable not to wait for autumn but to plough up in summer and 

 give the land a bastard fallowing. When a second corn crop is 

 to be taken the plough should follow the reaper as closely as 

 possible. 



This advice cannot always be carried out because of the shortage 

 of labour at harvest time. The speed of the plough is only that 

 of the farm horse. Steam ploughs work more quickly, but have 

 not proved suitable for the three-hundred-acre farm. Motor 

 ploughs are much more promising and if they come up to 

 expectations they will solve much of the difficulty of early work. 

 But whether it is to be done by a motor plough, a tractor, or a 

 horse the great object must be to get the ploughing forward as 

 early as possible. 



Very wet land is only cultivated with difficulty. Before much 

 can be done some sort of drainage is necessary. This is not the 

 time for big drainage schemes, but much can be done by mole 

 draining. If this is impracticable water may sometimes be led 

 away by a water furrow into a ditch or sumpf. Sometimes, 

 however, wet land does not want draining at all but only chalk 

 or lime. This is particularly the case with the red stony clays of 

 Herts, Bucks, Surrey and Kent, which are considerably improved 

 by dressings of chalk or lime. 



