Farming of Northamytonshiic, 



59 



apt to become raw, and not to run freely down tlie pipes of the 

 drill. Wheat is also " puddled " after the following- manner. A 

 sack of wheat is shot down upon a floor, and about 3 gallons of 

 boiling water, made thick with quick lime, is poured over it ; the 

 whole is then mixed together by repeated turnings, and left about 

 12 hours to dry. A solution of J a lb. of blue vitriol, dissolved in 

 hot water, to 4 bushels of wheat, is now becoming very general, it 

 being less trouble and more cleanly than the preceding plans, and 

 equally efficacious as a preventive to the smut. 



Wheat after clover-ley is generally very free from weeds, unless 

 it loses plant in the spring ; it then requires hoeing, and often 

 hand- weeding. Some farmers regularly hoe all their wheat in 

 April or May. 



The principal kinds of wheat grown are the old brown Lammas, 

 clover wheat, Bristol red, and Spalding prolific w^ieat. 



When the four-course system is regularly adopted, the pre- 

 ceding wheat crop is the last one in the course, and the land is 

 then prepared for the fallow crop ; but some farmers follow the 

 five-course system, and the succeeding crop will be — 



Fifth Yea?', Barley or Oats. — In some districts this system is 

 regularly followed. The wheat stubble receives a slight dressing 

 of manure, or is folded with sheep during the harvest, and in the 

 months of November or December is ploughed up, lying all the 

 Avinter months, and the barley or oats drilled on the stale furrow 

 in the spring. If the land should not be quite clean, another 

 ploughing is given in the month of March, and the land scarified 

 or drag-harrowed and hand-picked over before the barley or oats 

 are sown. 



Whenever the six-course system is adopted, winter beans would 

 be sown instead of barley, the land manured and the beans 

 drilled about the first week in November, in rows 18 or 20 

 inches apart, well hoed, and cleaned during the summer, either 

 with the horse-hoe or hand-hoe. They are generally ripe in 

 August, leaving the land in good condition for wheat. 



Sixth Year, Wheat. — This crop follows the winter beans. The 

 land, having been manured the previous autumn, will plough up 

 in good condition for the wheat crop. It is generally well scari- 

 fied and cleaned, and the wheat drilled or sown broadcast, and 

 harrowed in. 



The other six-course system referred to, where the seeds are 

 permitted to lie down two years, is followed by persons who are 

 short of pasture land ; it affords rest to the land, and the wheat 

 crop is thereby thrown at wider intervals. 



The preceding rotation of crops may be considered as the 

 systems most generally adopted throughout the county. There 

 are many very excellent farmers around Northampton who farm 



