On the Farming/ of Suffolk. 



281 



The manner of gathering barley at harvest Is different from 

 that practised on the light lands ; here the barley is mown 

 across the stetches or beds, and when 

 fit to cartj is gathered by the wives 

 of the harvestmen, who use hand-rakes 

 for the purpose of rolling the barlev 

 into rows ; they rake the swaths off 

 three stetches into a shock, leaving 

 a passage for the waggons in the fur- 

 rows, a a. 



Barley is harvested either in the 

 stack or barn^ though more frequently 



in the latter; a greater quantity is got into the barns by tramp- 

 ling with horses, though this practice is occasionally injuri- 

 ous, from the barley becoming mow-burnt when badly har- 

 vested. 



By far the greater part of the barley is threshed by the flail, at 

 a cost of from \Qd. to \s. per coomb. Machines for havelling 

 barley, in lieu of the old-fashioned barley-choppers, have lately 

 been introduced : these perform the operation perfectly, though 

 many farmers complain that from the machines cutting the 

 awns off so short, the barley does not fill the bushel so quickly 

 as before the machines were introduced ; however, as maltsters 

 will pay for even samples, there does not appear any likelihood 

 of havelling machines being laid aside. 



"^rd Year, Clover, Beans, and Peas — That portion of the 

 barley-stubble intended for beans and peas is manured with farm- 

 yard dung, usually from 14 to 20 loads per acre, and then 

 ploughed up ; this is generally completed before the frosts of 

 winter set in, by that means exposing the land to the ameliorating 

 effects of the weather during winter, and this adds another link to 

 the system of avoiding spring-ploughing, and sowing on a stale 

 furrow, which are, I believe, the strong points in the husbandry 

 of the heavy-land farmers of Suffolk. Some farmers give a half 

 coat of dun or for beans, and the other half for wheat: the dungr 

 for beans is not ploughed in very deep, as it is considered that 

 beans require a firm bottom, and that by ploughing deep for 

 wheat the manure applied for beans will be brought nearer the 

 surface. When drilling beans and peas is practised, the land is 

 scarified before sowing to let in the drill, but for dibbling this is 

 not required. Beans are planted from 6 to 8 rows on a 12 

 furrow stetch (peas rather closer), the time of planting February 

 and March, but this depends on the weather. About 2 bushels 

 of common small beans are planted to the acre, about 4 of 

 Windsors and Mazagans, and from 3 to 4 bushels of peas. Beans 

 are hoed twice, and sometimes three times, with a heavy hoe (by 



