Farming of CamlerJand. 



227 



proper payments, and for reasonable and well-defined quantities 

 and qualities of manure, or of hay and straw in lieu, to be left, 

 would put many of the complicated clauses of leases on a more 

 simple footino;, and be more efficacious for both landlord and 

 tenant : always admitting that a mutual determination to con- 

 tinue friendlv is of the utmost importance to both parties. 



Since draining has enabled turnips to be gi'own on the better 

 class of clay-lands, bare fallows are very properly much less 

 resorted to than formerly. From, the peculiarly moist climate of 

 this county, seasons occur now and then when if fallows are not, 

 or cannot be, duly attended to in early spring, on account of 

 turnip-sowing, ^zc, they cannot be properly worked afterwards, 

 as on the clays situate a few miles from the shore. The uncer- 

 tainty of obtaining a fallowing season suitable alike for the de- 

 struction of both annual and perennial weeds, has, and must 

 still more forcibly, urge the necessity of perseverance in drain- 

 ing, in order to increase the quantity of land for growing green 

 crops, and to dispense with the expensive and dilatory bare 

 fallows. 



Mr. Ferguson, of Harker Lodge, and jMr. Harris, of Grey- 

 southen, have both rather extensively practised fallovving for 

 two years or more in succession, and by means of that and of 

 deep ploughing have obtained immense crops of wheat ; the 

 latter with extra allowances of lime * alone, and both, of course, 

 after perfect drainage. These examples, though excellent in 

 themselves, are no guide for the tenant-farmer ; and we are glad 

 to be able to record that the most intelligent farmers are using 

 great exertions to substitute green crops for bare fallows, wherever 

 there is a probability of raising a fair crop of turnips. In the 

 place of bare fallows for wheat, many spirited farmers now 

 hare the fallows (on land where a wheat-crop is doubtful) comx- 

 pleted as early as possible, and sow down about Lammas with 

 rape and seeds ; and since the introduction of guano and im- 

 proved implements for cleaning land this practice is extending 

 every year. This crop yields some return in the first year, a 

 larger in the second, and does not exhaust the soil by taking 

 away any of the crop more than does common pasturage. 



The importance of turnip -growing forces itself on the atten- 

 tion of the farmer more and more every year. Bailey and Culley 

 say, " Turnips were first cultivated in this county, to any effect, 

 for tie :i;e of cattle, by Philip Howard, Esq., of Corby, in the 

 year 1755 : his first essay was drilled, at 4 feet distance, the 

 crop amazingly good." He '•' continued to grow them at 2 feet 

 and 2h feet distance, wiih constant success, for eight or ten years 

 before any farmer followed his example ; at last, 'Sir. Collins, of 



* 450 to 500 inaperial bushels to the acre, 



Q 2 



