270 



On the Farming of Suffolk. 



course system is usually practised — while the system of beans and 

 wheat alternately, with a fallow every five years, is adopted in a 

 small extent of the county where the soil rests on the London 

 clay. 



1st Year, Fallow— The number of ploughings to make a^clean 

 fallow is 5, sometimes 6, viz. : — 1, ploughing in the stubble; 2, 

 turning back the furrows ; 3 and 4, ploughed overthwart (across 

 the previous ploughings) in broad stetches usually 2 rods wide, 5 

 stetched up for turnips, or if long fallow, for barley ; some give 

 the stetches another ploughing before laying the land up for the 

 winter. 



The first ploughing of a clean fallow is given generally pre- 

 vious to the winter setting in, though there are some who advocate 

 the practice that was common thirty or forty years ago, of air 

 lowing the land intended for long fallow to lie unplouglied till 

 the spring, alleging that the land works much better. This is 

 entirely out of the question for roots, but there are feasible reasons 

 to give for its being adopted, it allows more time for the prepara- 

 tion of the other fields intended for roots ; and it does not spoil 

 the early partridge shooting, as there is no occasion for the imme- 

 diate removal of the stubble — the latter is not of much importance 

 to the tenant, though it certainly is to a few of the owners of 

 heavy land. Much, however, depends on the season ; wet land 

 ploughed up, and then exposed to an open and rainy winter, will 

 most likely work badly in the spring, and probably much worse 

 than if allowed to remain whole. The advocates of breaking up 

 fallows in the spring will certainly allow that there is advantage 

 in exposing land to the frost, for the same farmers who objected 

 to the autumn ploughings of long fallows yet advocated the autumn 

 and winter preparation for roots. 



Har rowings and rollings intervene between the ploughings, 

 though it is considered by some farmers that too many harrowings 

 are frequently given : the couch-grass and rubbish is got out of the 

 land after the second ploughing, it is brought to the surface by 

 harrowing and picking, and then burnt. After the second 

 ploughing overthwart, a marker of the exact width of the stetches 

 is sometimes used previous to ploughing the land in stetches — 

 this is a bar of wood or iron having two coulters at the required 

 width fixed behind a pair of wheels and shafts, usually those of 

 the horse-rake ; this is drawn over the land, and leaves straight 

 marks for the guidance of the ploughman. The land being laid 

 up for the winter before Christmas, the barley is drilled upon the 

 earth which has been pulverized by the winter frosts without any 

 other preparation than a light harrowing or scarifying. 



As a rule, no advantage is ever derived from ploughing fallows 

 in wet weather, and very seldom from sowing the seed, whether 



