62 



Farming of NortJiamptonshire. 



In explaining the mode of cultivation, I shall include both No. 

 1 and 2 under one head, as the same system of husbandry is 

 adopted, excepting that barley is taken in No. 2 directly after the 

 fallow, and in No. 1 the barley or oats is taken as the last crop, 

 and in some instances wheat is again taken. 



First Year, Fallow. — A considerable breadth of this descrip- 

 tion of land is sown with tares. They are sown as early after 

 harvest as possible, the land receiving one ploughing, and the 

 seed about 3 bushels per acre, either harrowed in or drilled. 

 These are either eaten off with sheep, or mown for horses in the 

 months of May and June, after which the land receives two or 

 three ploughings, is scarified, manured, or folded with sheep, 

 and is either sown with wheat at Michaelmas or laid up dry for 

 barley in the spring. When an entire dead fallow is intended, 

 the first ploughing is sometimes given in the winter months, but 

 most frequently it is deferred until April or May, as on all wet 

 soils a dry first ploughing is almost indispensable to the making 

 of a good tillage. The second ploughing is generally given across 

 in the month of June, and the land left in a rough state " to 

 bake," that is, to be dried up by the summer's sun, thereby 

 killing the roots of couch grass and other weeds ; after which 

 it receives two more ploughings, or one ploughing and twice 

 scarified ; it is then manured or folded, and made into a fine 

 clean tilth, ready for wheat or barley. 



Of late years turnips have been grown on some parts of the 

 summer fallow, choosing those fields on the farm which are the 

 best adapted for root crops, as they come in rotation to be 

 fallowed. The first ploughing is given in winter, and the land 

 is sometimes previously manured. Early in the spring it is 

 again ploughed, and, if necessary, scarified and rolled with 

 Crosskill's clod-crusher ; and by repeated ploughings is got into 

 as fine a tilth as practicable. It is manured previous to the last 

 ploughing. The turnips are drilled in June or July, either on 

 the flat surface and hand-hoed, or on ridges, which are kept 

 clean by repeated horse-hoeing. Under a system of high farming, 

 good crops of turnips may be obtained on the most convertible 

 part of these soils ; but it is difficult to consume them on the 

 land, owing to the treading of the sheep rendering the land unfit 

 for the succeeding crop of barley. Many farmers get them up 

 in the autumn, and consume them at home in fold-yards or on 

 the grass-land, ploughing the land up for exposure to the winter's 

 pulverization. An improved system of drainage has much in- 

 creased the facility of growing root-crops on the stiff soils. On 

 the gravelly soils turnips can be eaten off by sheep with advantage. 

 The Right Hon. C. Arbuthnot, who farmed extensively on a 



