On the Farming of Suffolk. 



299 



turning. On the morning of carting the swaths are gathered into 

 rows sufficiently far apart to allow the passage of a cart or waggon, 

 a horse or hand rake being first used in the intervals. The 

 gathering should be completed before the sun bears much power, 

 or much of the seed will be brushed out in the act of moving the 

 swaths. As soon as the sainfoin is dry the carters may be set to 

 work, but care must be taken to handle the seed as carefully as 

 possible, or some loss will be sustained. The seed is said to keep 

 best in the stack. The stalks appear rough and sticky, but if 

 cut into short chaff they will make useful provender, and many 

 farmers consider it equal to hay. 



Italian rye -grass is grown instead of clover on some of the 

 better soils, and has produced very abundant crops, — the quantity 

 sown per acre is about 2 bushels. A description of the plan fol- 

 lowed by some farmers in harvesting this crop may perhaps be 

 interesting from its novelty. 



Italian rye-grass for a seed-crop requires to be cut before it 

 becomes perfectly ripe, for if allowed to stand too long the greater 

 portion of the seed will be blown out by the wind. When the 

 seed is ripe — this may be known by examining the heads and 

 seeing that the seed is perfectly formed — it is mown early in the 

 morning, for when damp the seed does not shake out so much 

 as it does in the heat of the middle part of the day. When the 

 mowing is finished, should any docks or thistles, or any other 

 large weeds be observed in the swath, they may be picked out by 

 women and children ; this will tend in some measure to secure a 

 good and genuine sample of seed, the sowing of which will not 

 produce a crop of weeds upon the land. The next day after 

 mowing, as early in the morning as it can be conveniently done, 

 the grass is tied up in sheaves in the same manner as wheat, and 

 then placed four sheaves in a shock. By adopting the practice 

 of tying, comparatively slight loss of seed is occasioned by the 

 operation of getting together and carting. The straw must also 

 be more valuable than when exposed to the full action of the sun 

 and wind. The seed will be fit to thrash in a week or ten days 

 from the time of cutting ; but this of course depends upon the 

 weather. It may also be carted sooner if thrashed in the field at 

 once than it can be if stacked or carried in bulk to the barn ; for 

 if at all green this kind of grass is very likely to heat, and thus 

 spoil the seed. A hot, dry, calm day ought to be selected for 

 thrashing the seed in the field, and a smooth piece of ground may 

 be selected for the thrashing-floor in the centre of the piece. 

 Four or five thrashers may be kept at work by having a horse 

 and a light cart with a cloth laid across it to prevent the shed seed 

 being lost. A man and a boy carting with one horse will keep 

 four or five thrashers at work. 



