84 



On Cropping and Cultivating Light Land. 



ford — that of Mr. Drewitt — which presents an instance of a 

 perfectly-clean farm, and kept so by deep, clean ploughing, un- 

 sparing use of the horse and hand hoe, and the invariable habit 

 of spudding-up couch, crowsfoot, Sfc.^from the stubbles, and, in fact, 

 at every possible opportunity. It has often been remarked that 

 root-crops and corn are unmolested by wire worm upon this 

 farm : the owner asserts that he starved them long ago by 

 growing no weeds to sustain them in the absence of a crop. 



With luxuriant green crops upon the fallows, and under ad- 

 mirable management, this farm carries a most unusual amount 

 of sheep, horned, and pig stock, is consequently supplied with 

 a great quantity of rich manure, grows very heavy crops of roots, 

 plenty of rye and tares, and produces large crops of corn. To 

 point out why land should be clean, and how to clean it, will 

 be thought by all good farmers as unnecessary as it would be to 

 descant upon the horrors of war ; but, as some nations cannot 

 be too well taught to reverence a just peace as the first step 

 towards freedom and social advancement, so some farmers cannot 

 know too soon the advantages enjoyed by their fellow-compe- 

 titors, who make this cleanness the first step to a better and 

 faster system of cropping. 



Rye, tares, or ersh turnips are sown, immediately after harvest, 

 upon stubbles intended for roots the following spring. Ersh 

 turnips are planted on the warmest, most fertile sandy soils, 

 aided, perhaps, by a little guano, when they produce excellent 

 food in the following early spring for ewes and lambs, for stock- 

 sheep, or for fattening sheep fed with corn. A good season is 

 generally made for the succeeding root-crop, after one plough- 

 ng, unless fed off in wet weather, when more work may be 

 required, according to the friability of the soil, and depending 

 also upon the kind of implements used to pulverise it. The 

 modern iron harrows and Crosskill's clod-crushers are too well 

 known to need any recommendation. 



Rye and winter tares are sown immediately after harvest, and, 

 unless cropped by hares and rabbits, they present a lively green 

 throughout the winter ; and in early spring, when the winter's 

 store of roots is consumed, they are ready to take their place. 



Fatting sheep require corn, which is all the better for the 

 ensuing crop. Hoggets or tegs, to be kept as stock and fattened 

 the following winter, usually feed them without corn, depending 

 upon how they can be kept till turnips come again. 



Even the store-sheep, however, receive corn from those who 

 recognise the soundness and true economy of the principle, that 

 all stock, from its birth to its death, should be constantly fattening 

 as icell as growing, and it is to be attributed to the gradual re- 

 ception of this principle that we have lately brought our sheep 



