274 



On the Farming of Suffolk. 



Another plan is to remove the roots entirely by manual labour; 

 and I have the authority of Mr. A. Gissing, of Stradbroke, to state 

 that in a wet season he got his beet off a ten-acre field without 

 the aid of horses, at a cost of 95. per acre ; women and children 

 pulled the beet, while men carried the roots in baskets or wheeled 

 them in barrows to clamps on the side of the field. Three 

 clamps were made on one side of the field and three on the other. 

 The people employed made good earnings. 



Besides the employment of the labourer and his family, and 

 the absence of injury to the land from the treading of horses, this 

 practice, to judge from the above statement, appears to be quite 

 as cheap as using horses and carts. 



In seasons dry enough for carting off the beet, wheat is grown 

 thereafter to a considerable extent instead of barley, and pro- 

 duces a superior quality of sample. Good crops of barley are 

 generally grown after beet ; as a preparation the leaves are 

 ploughed in ; it has been found that the barley-crop is inferior 

 where the leaves have been carted off. 



Swedes are frequently cultivated on the ridge in the same 

 manner as beet, the seed being sown about the beginning of 

 June ; they do best on the ridge in a wet season, but in a dry one 

 the ridges being cloddy and dry, the swedes do not grow well. 

 Those who fat cattle cart the crop off the land before Christmas 

 (November and December), and store in heaps near the fatting- 

 yards or along a headland in a stubble-field ; some store them in 

 a similar manner to beet, the heap rather smaller, but covered 

 with straw only ; some lay them in heaps between hurdles and 

 then thatch with straw ; others only cover with straw at first, as 

 the swedes are apt to heat, but about three weeks after cover with 

 earth : in this manner swedes keep sound till the spring. How 

 much better this practice of carting roots from the soil and storing 

 them, than carting a load of roots from the field daily, which 

 are either covered with dirt or in a frozen state ! By this tardy 

 management the farmer's sheep and cattle are badly supplied 

 with food, and his barley crop spoilt on account of the late time 

 of sowing. 



There is yet another way of managing heavy land for roots, 

 which is coming into notice and appears to have great advantages, 

 particularly as it does away with spring ploughing, and with 

 another injury so often complained of, that of carting the manure 

 on wet land in the spring. 



The stubble is ploughed up early in autumn, and the land 

 ridged in about 30-inch ridges (these are sometimes turned 

 back), and then a dressing of farm-yard manure applied, spread, 

 and covered in by splitting the ridges ; in these operations the 

 common plough is used. The land now lies exposed through 



