426 



Agriculture of Northumberland. 



cast at the rate of 2 bushels per acre. From carefully conducted 

 experiments the writer is of opinion that the crop is generally as 

 productive by this method as when sown by the drill, ihe only 

 gain being about a quarter of a bushel of seed per acre, unless 

 the land be intended for after-cultivation, when the drill is indis- 

 pensable. Previous to sowing, the wheat is always carefully 

 steeped in chamber-lye and dried with quicklime, which is 

 found to be a complete safeguard against smut. In wet cold 

 springs this crop is sometimes seriously injured by rust. Draining 

 seems to be the only remedy for this disease. 



Lime, when it can be procured, is found to be of great value 

 on the land we are describing. Unfortunately throughout the 

 district, it is found in such sm.all quantities as to render it impos- 

 sible for the farmer to obtain sufficient of it, to produce the full 

 benefit of its chemical and mechanical action, on the retentive 

 clays of the middle of the county. Should any of the proposed 

 railways be the means of placing this substance within the farmer's 

 reach, it would be a valuable boon. 



3. The artificial grasses mostly cultivated in this rotation are 

 common broad clover, white clover, cow-grass (trifolium medium), 

 hop clover, rye-grass, annual and perennial, and sometimes the 

 Italian rye-grass. They are sown upon the wheat or barley as 

 early as possible in the spring. Of all the crops which the farmer 

 cultivates, there are none which he finds so unmanageable as the 

 red clover ; and, next to the improvement effected by the culture 

 of turnips, the most valuable is that produced by the bean and 

 pea. It is found that after clover has been cultivated a number 

 of years, on the same ground, it at length fails altogether ; nor can 

 any after-cultivation or cropping, except the bean, restore the 

 land to its original fertility. The general plan is to sow one half, 

 or at least one-third, of the wheat-stubble with beans or peas, so 

 that the same land is only in clover once in eight years, or twice 

 in twelve. The only preparation the land receives for beans, is 

 one furrow early in winter, and about 4 bushels per acre is the 

 usual quantity of seed. The drill is universally used for this 

 crop, horse and hand hoeing being indispensable. The produce 

 varies very much ; about 20 bushels per acre will be near the 

 average. 



In the neighbourhood of Warkworth and some other parts of 

 the county, whilst the soil is sufficiently strong to bear excellent 

 crops of wheat, the subsoil is dry enough to be worked early in 

 the spring. It is the practice in that neighbourhood, to drill up 

 the land intended for beans in the same way as done for turnips — 

 a most admirable practice, as it allows the free application of the 

 horse-hoe, and leaves the ground in as perfect a state as can be 

 desired for after- cropping. 



