50 
Some of the Agricultural Lessons of 1SG8. 
witli G pecks an acre of winter tares, witli Newberry's dibbling- 
machine, which takes five rows at a time, 8 inches from row to 
row, and (J inches from hole to hole ; and then a three-horse rib- 
roller was passed over them, closing all the holes in without dis- 
turbing any of the young clover that might by chance be alive. 
Upon the wheat stubbles he put in nev/ rape-seed, white mustard- 
seed, and buckwheat for autumn feed for his flock of 600 breed- 
ing ewes to go on to. In July the small-seed drill with 10 
coulters 12 inches apart was put across the ridges where the 
swedes were sown (as the swedes did not come up), putting in 
green-round turnip seed ; and by the end of August they were fit 
for the hoe, and promised a good deal of feed over 120 acres in 
the spring. 
Writing on November 7th, Mr. Hudson had to say that his root 
crops were so much improved during the previous sis weeks, 
that he expected to be able to keep his sheep through the winter 
and spring in the usual way. 
Mr. W. Cubitt, of Bacton Abbey, North Walsham, another 
Norfolk witness, says : — 
" Green crops are more or less a failure. Sixty acres of wheat stubble on 
this farm were ploughed up immediately after harvest, sown with 2 cwts. 
per acre of superphosphate, and drilled with green-round turnip seed ; but 
owing to the autumn drought, and subsequcntlj- the cold rains and frosty 
nights, they made no progress, indeed are of little or no value. Eape-seed 
shared a similar fate, but white mustard succeeded better, and has produced 
some amount of sheep food. Trifolium, Italian rye-grass, and winter tares, 
have been sown to a limited extent, and arc promising. 
" On this, and many other farms, the young clovers and other artificial 
grasses were a general failure ; but it is a fact worthy of note that in all cases 
where these seeds were sown immediately after the barley in the months of 
February and March, and deeply buried, they stood well. In the majority of 
cases where they failed the land was rcsown after harvest with an admixture 
of Italian rye-grass, trefoil, and red suckling : — they vegetated after the first 
rain, but perished during the three weeks drought which followed, those sown 
later as upon this farm did not vegetate till the second rain after the harvest, 
and now show themselves thickly ; but it is doubtful if they will not succumb 
to the first severe frost." 
The following is a very useful report from Bedfordshire. 
Mr. Charles Howard, of Biddenham, sends the following account 
of his experience during the past autumn. He says : — 
" The green crops were almost an entire failure, a few pieces of mangold- 
■svurzel were to be seen here and there ; our old friend the swede could not put 
in an appearance. There are a few pieces also of kohl-rabi, which were useful 
to transplant from after the rains at the latter end of August. I was foi'tunate 
to have some pieces from which T transplanted 12 or 14 acres of land which 
had been sown with wurzels. These are growing well now, and will be some 
good keep in the spring. After the rains, farmers were busy in every direction 
in seeding all the root crop land with either rape or white turnips, and a good 
deal of keep is the consequence. 
, " I never knew a season when so much preparation for spring keep was 
