On the Farming of Suffolk. 



271 



of turnips, beet, or barley, directly after the plough. One of the 

 greatest difficulties attending the cultivation of roots on heavy 

 land is the getting the land into sufficient tilth ; if the land is 

 ploughed when wet, the furrows harden into one mass, and if very 

 dry it breaks up into clods. By spring-ploughing there is every 

 chance of producing clods instead of mould, and hence the ad- 

 vantage of preparing land intended for roots in the winter or 

 autumn. The ridge cultivation, so well adapted for the removal 

 of roots from a heavy soil, cannot be practised with the certainty 

 of securing a crop when the land is ploughed in the spring ; on 

 account of the difficulty of bringing the land into good tilth 

 under the system of five ploughings, seed sown on a ridge of 

 clods is less likely to vegetate than when sown on the flat stetch, 

 hence the latter method has until lately been generally adopted. 



When tares are grown on the fallow, manure is generally ap- 

 plied at the rate of from fourteen to sixteen loads per acre, the 

 land ploughed once, and the seed drilled at the rate of from ten 

 to twelve pecks per acre ; half a bushel of oats or rye is frequently 

 added ; when sown late in the season the quantity of seed per 

 acre is increased ; the purposes to which the tares are chiefly 

 applied are for soiling the horses during the summer. Where 

 sheep are kept tares are sometimes fed off, either with hurdles on 

 the land or mown and carried on a pasture ; when hurdled, the 

 tares are generally mown before given to the sheep. A few 

 farmers sow coleseed or turnips after the tares. A heavy-land 

 farmer who has practised the system of tare-husbandry for sheep 

 has given it up, having found that it is impossible to keep his 

 land clean; he allows that a good crop of tares has a cleaning 

 effect on the land, though he considers a bad crop to have quite 

 a contrary effect : by substituting a long fallow he is able to keep 

 his land clean, though he does not grow a heavier barley crop. 



Tares are by some given to grazing bullocks; I found one 

 farmer was feeding on tares, beet, bean and barley meal, and 

 cake, in June, 1846. 



Italian rye-grass and trefoil have of late been grown by farmers 

 who keep sheep for the purpose of affording spring feed ; they 

 are sown on a wheat stubble ; after feeding off in the spring the 

 land is broken up and sown with turnips or summer fallowed. 



Turnips, Sfc. — The practice of reaping wheat still prevails, and 

 consequently the stubble has to be cleared off the land previously 

 to its being ploughed up : this is undoubtedly a loss of time, par- 

 ticularly on those lands intended for mangel or swedes ; but the 

 question is, how are we to obviate this ? The mowing such 

 heavy crops as are generally grown is not likely to be practised 

 in every district, but still mowing, bagging, or reaping low will 

 further the preparation of the land for beet and swedes, as there 



