64 



Farming of Nortliamj)tonsliire. 



more freely. The plants were left rather thick in the rows, about 

 4 or 5 inches asunder, and kept clean during the summer. The 

 weight was 24 tons per acre ; they were grown without any 

 manure and after a wheat crop. 



On the same farm, in the year 1847, Mr. Robinson took the 

 prize for both carrots and mangold ; the weight of carrots was 

 32* tons, of mangold 34 tons per acre. I mention these facts to 

 show what may be done on inferior land by steady perseverance 

 and skill. 



Second Year, Wheat or Barley. — On the stiff clay land, after 

 the summer fallow a crop of wheat is generally taken ; but in 

 some districts, where the land is drier and a crop of turnips has 

 been taken, the land is left for barley. If wheat is taken flrsty 

 it requires on tillage land but little cultivation before sowing ; it 

 is either ploughed in with the last ploughing or is drilled. The 

 seed used is about 2 bushels per acre, but on some weak land 

 2i bushels are sown. The furrows are drawn after the seeding 

 is done, and trenched to carry off the water. During the spring 

 months clover is sometimes sown on part of the land, and harrowed 

 in with a pair of light seed harrows. The crop will not often 

 require much attention during the summer, except hand-weeding, 

 and even this is not always done. Should the land have been 

 left for barley, it is nearly always drilled on the stale furrow, 

 without the land being again ploughed. Clover seeds are har- 

 rowed in, and should clover not be sown, the barley is generally 

 hoed as soon as it is ready, or hand-weeded during the summer. 



Third Year, Beans or Clover. — When the occupier is regularly 

 following the four-course system of husbandry, he generally sows 

 one eighth part of his arable land with clover and one eighth 

 with beans, thus bringing in the clover at an interval of eight 

 years. The clover plant in the wheat or barley stubble is eaten 

 by a few lambs at Michaelmas, and is shut up during the winter. 

 The wheat stubble is not mown^ but left to protect the clover 

 plants, and then raked off in the spring. The clover is either 

 mown for hay and then grazed with sheep, or else mown twice 

 for hay. When clover-seed is grown, the seeds are eaten until 

 May, and then shut up for " maiden seed ;" or a crop of seed is 

 sometimes taken after the mowing, but it is not so productive, 

 and is liable to be injured by the frosty nights in autumn. Con- 

 siderable quantity of clover-seed used to be grown in the vicinity 

 of Finedon, Great and Little Addington, Woodford, Raunds, and 

 on the limestone land in that vicinity. I have known as much as 

 8 bushels of maiden-seed per acre grown on the farm now in the 

 occupation of Mr. Wakefield of Finedon, the property of Captain 

 Purvis. 



Red broad clover is principally grown on these soils, with 



