86 



On Cropping and Cultivating Light Land. 



20 tons per acre. Swedes are grown from 15 to 25 tons per acre. 

 The application of manures is too well known to need notice 

 here ; but of the various methods of applying artificial manures 

 it may be here mentioned that, although the manure-drill has 

 not come into use within the last four or five years, its universal 

 adoption is of very recent date, and, with the horse-hoe, may be 

 classed amongst our other great modern improvements. 



By means of these implements we plant our root-crops, manure 

 them, and afterwards hoe and scarify them, with a regularity and 

 strict economy wholly unknown to our ancestors. In speaking 

 of the green crops grown upon fallows, the culture of the man- 

 gold-wurzel must not be forgotten. It has lately assumed an 

 important place among our root-crops. It is usually grown 

 upon land which will not bear sheep-treading, and is carted off 

 the land to be fed by cattle in yards, or by sheep, during the 

 winter and spring months. With a supply of 4 cwt. of common 

 salt, 2 cwt. of nitrate of soda, with 2 cwt. of guano per acre, at an 

 expense of about 3/., and with frequent and deep horse-hoein^s, 

 crops of 25 to 35 tons per acre can be grown. They are 

 trimmed, carted, and stacked for about IZ. per acre. They are 

 usually stacked near the yard where they are intended to be fed ; 

 if properly covered and ventilated they keep perfectly sound, 

 and in the spring, even up to July and August, the water con- 

 tained in them having decreased, and the saccharine miatter 

 having greatly increased, they are found to be invaluable food 

 for cattle, pigs, or sheep. 



We have now spoken of those green crops which occupy a 

 prominent position upon the light-land fallows. Rape and mus- 

 tard are in occasional use, but they more properly belong to 

 heavy land, where the swede and turnip are necessarily much less 

 grown. Passing now from the first or root-crop portion of the 

 modern four-course system., we come to the second or barley 

 portion. There is but little to notice here : wheat is sometimes 

 sown instead of barley; but the present price of the latter as com- 

 pared with that of the former will secure its extensive growth. 

 The usual yield of barley is from 4 to 7 quarters per acre. Both 

 the chalks and the sands and loams produce barley for the 

 maltster, but the finest comes from the best loamy soils. Where 

 the roots are drawn from the land it is usual to plough in, or 

 sow immediately after the plough, about 2 cwt of guano. This 

 has a most marked effect, and generally secures a crop quite as 

 good as that grov/n where the roots were fed on the land by 

 sheep. If the root-crop is not so good as usual, or if the land 

 is thought able to bear more manure, or if the barley looks weak 

 after it is up, a little guano, or a little nitrate of soda, is often 

 applied, and, if judiciously used, and showers fall to dissolve the 



