64 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
grain crop to follow. Therefore when this warning signal 
looms up before one, it is a matter for consideration and 
action, in order to avoid, if possible, a second failure. 
One plan is to cover the hay stubble with a good coating: 
of farmyard manure at Midsummer, which keeps out the sun, 
and produces a crop of sour herbage of little value, except to 
plough in during the autumn. If the farmer has time, he had 
better break up the land at once, and take his chance with a 
catch crop. Should it be a clover stubble, it should not be 
disturbed until it is ploughed in the autumn, because a week’s 
rain will resuscitate it, and produce valuable herbage, and 
cause it to continue to collect nitrogen. 
Assuming that it has been determined to try a catch crop, 
several courses are open, with more or less advantage in each 
case, according to the state of the land, the farm’s require- 
ments, and the season. 
Many farmers plough in the flag with or without manure, 
and sow the crop without further delay, trouble, or expense, 
no matter whether they are sowing turnips, tares, buckwheat, 
tye, bere, rape, tares, or a selection. If an early hay crop has 
been secured, white turnips can be sown as late as the first 
week in August; but if the hay crop has been very late, then 
mustard is a last resource, as mustard is the quickest growing, 
the least able to resist an early frost, and the least valued of all 
catch crops. Any of the above-named crops can be fed off, 
soiled, or made into ensilage, or hay, as desired, or they can 
be ploughed in, which entirely depends upon the circumstances 
in each case. 
Sometimes the land is in such a foul state that it is desirable 
to sow no crop at all, but to take advantage of the late summer 
and early autumn, and devote attention to the cleaning of the 
land. 
Clean land, one can deal with as one pleases ; foul land, one 
must deal with tt as one can. 
