Sheep Stock at Clifton-on-Bowmimt. 131 



half-bred sheep stock— a breed resulting from Cheviot 

 ewe^ crossed by Leicester rams. This breed is, com- 

 paratively speaking, costly to buy and feed, and I 

 therefore substituted for it Cheviot ewes crossed with 

 Leicester rams, thus selling half-bred lambs ate before, 

 but what is known as the first cross, and saving a 

 considerable expenditure of capital — the difference in 

 value between a Cheviot ewe and a half-bred one being 

 about £1. This change enabled me to reduce the 

 expensive and precarious turnip crop, as the half-bred 

 ewes require a considerable supply of turnips — lessen 

 the com crop, and lower the labour bill.* The farm 

 was previously worked on the five-couit'se shift or 

 rotation, i.e., oats, turnips, barley, and two years in 

 grass, fhis I changed to an eight-course rotation — 

 turnips, oats, turnips, barley or oats with grass seeds, 

 and four years in grass — a change which enables the 

 farmer to put down an improved grass mixture at about 

 the same annual cost as was incurred in the case of the 

 five-course rotation, but yielding vastly superior results 

 in grazing, and in the subsequent crops when the land 

 is again brought under the plough. This eight-course 

 system combined with filling up every space on the land 

 with strong-growing grasses and plants, raised from 

 pure seeds true to their kind — which are stronger 

 than most weeds — literally obliterates weeds, and 

 prevents others from growing ^ thereby, of course, 

 saving the waste caused by growing weeds and the 

 cost of removing them. On Clifton-on-Bowmont 

 none have been removed for the last 16 years, and it 



* It is important to remember that, though the demand for labour 

 would be lessened on some farms by the adoption of my system of farming, 

 it would be increased over the large areas of land now left in worthless 

 pasture, but which could be restored to arable were my system adopted. 

 It is also clear that much land might be taken from pasture lands, and 

 turned into arable were my system adopted, though they could not be 

 profitably worked in arable on any other system, and thus large additions 

 may be made to the rural population'. 



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