282 



Oti the Farming of Suffolk. 



some farmers the horse-hoe is used, and with much advantage), 

 at a cost of 45. for the first hoeing, and of 2s. 6d. 

 or 3s. for the second. Some plant their beans on 

 ridges, either one or two rows ; if two, 8 or 9 

 inches apart, the ridges from 27 for one row, to 

 42 inches wide for two rows, and then plough and 

 horse-hoe between the intervals. Beans are either 

 pulled by women and children or cut with a hook, (a) 

 " scrogged." Peas are either mown, or the pea- 

 make (b) is used for the purpose. 

 Peas with barley are used to some extent for fattening pigs ; 

 beans for horses and bullocks. Bean-meal with oil-cake is fre- 

 quently used, and is reckoned better than if they were given 

 separately. 



Manure is frequently carted on the clover in the winter during 

 frosty weather ; when this is done the land is not dunged for 

 wheat ; this is preferred by many, as the clover gets the benefit, 

 and the wheat-plant comes better than when the manure is laid 

 on a short time before ploughing for wheat. 



Italian rye-grass is grown in some places in lieu of clover ; it 

 must be useful on land that is clover-sick, as allowing a longer 

 interval to elapse before it is again sown on the land. Clover is 

 sometimes mown for "stover," (that is, hay) the second crop 

 being either fed or mown for hay or for seed, though some cart 

 into the yards for horses. The manner of making hay has 

 nothing remarkable in it to deserve a description. 



Seed-clover is grown to a considerable extent ; the practice is to 

 feed red clover till June, and white till May (not folded), and 

 then shut up for seed ; the feeding with sheep makes the clover 

 blossom more at once. Red clover is sometimes mown for hay, 

 and then seeded ; but the lateness at which the seed is harvested 

 renders this an uncertain practice. Stones are picked off the 

 layer during winter, and the thistles and other weeds chopped up 

 a short time after the crop is shut up for seed. White clover is 

 mown early in the morning and late at night in dry weather, for 

 when damp the seeds do not brush off: this is not required for red 

 clover ; men or women follow the mowers with close-toothed iron 

 rakes, for the purpose of collecting the heads of clover that fall 

 between the swaths. The cost of mowing is from 2s. to 2s. 6cZ. 

 per acre, that of raking about Is. per acre. The clover is turned 

 and lifted as occasion may require, a rake following each man 

 that turns. "When fit to cart, the seed is gathered in rows with 

 hand-rakes in the morning, while the dew is on the ground, in a 

 similar manner to barley, the intervals between the rows being 

 sufficiently v,^ide for the passage of the waggons; in pitching, the 

 seed is handled as carefully as possible. When carting white 



