52 
Some of the Agricultural Lessons of 1868. 
present season to be a failure ; ami lliousamls of acres of barley stubble an? 
bare. These barley stubbles will in many instances be resown with barley 
perhaps to be resown with clover. In some instances where the land is in 
high condition, barley stubbles will be sown with rape and mustard, with a. 
few tares to aft'ord early eating for sheep, and as a preparation for wheat. 
Barley must be sown somewhere, and tlie bulk of the mixed turnip lands, 
having been sown with wheat, farmers have to set aside the usual course 
of cropping, and repeat barley on barley. The old clovers, which would liavc 
been sown with wheat the present season, are held on another year to afford 
pasturage, or for mowing. In some instances, wheat is sown on a fallowed 
wheat stubble, but this is not common. The quantity of wheat sown in the 
district is equal to former years, and it looks very well. Perhaps the forced 
change in the course of cropping may be productive of good and relieve the 
land of the ^^revailing clover sickness." 
The following are shorter memoranda. Mi% Cobban, writing: 
from Lord Ducie's farm at Whitfield, Gloucestershire, says : — 
" Mustard, rape, trifolium, rye, Italian rye-grass, and stubble turnips have 
been sown in this neighbourhood for winter and early spring feed. My opinion 
is that stubble turnips, rape, and rye, will he the most useful, as they are of 
earlier and quicker growth than trifolium or Italian rye-grass; mustard cannot 
be depended upon after Xoveniljer as the frost will destroy it. As soon as 
the rye gets up about a foot or 18 inches high, we mow a jjortion every day, 
and cut it into chaff to mix with dry food ; a jolan which greatly economises 
a scanty root crop, and helps to carry us on till the Italian rj-e-grass is ready." 
Captain Dashwood, of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, says : — 
" In this district many attempts have been made to provide green food 
during the coming winter and spring. I should say the stubble turnip will- 
of the sowings turn out of most use, as the bulbs if of any size will produce 
top in the spring. 
" I have sown nothing contrary to my usual custom, except trifolium, and 
that is to replace the clovers that have failed completely — this trifolium I shali 
follow with rape. I have also had to resow my Italian rye-grass of which I 
always grow a few acres for spring feed for the lambs. 
" I always grow a certain proportion of sainfoin, as the limestone soil is 
very suitable for it. Being consequently to a certain extent independent of 
the clover crop, I have not kejjt down the old clovers. I shall therefore not 
have to make any alteration in my system. 
" As to my rotation I now have none, except that one-sixth of my arable 
land (45 acres of sainfoin deducted) is in root crops, and one-twelfth in clover. 
The other nine-twelfths are cropped with corn according to the condition and 
quality of the land." 
Mr. A. S. Ruston, of Aylesby, Chatteris, writing from the 
Cambridgeshire Fens, says : — 
" This not being a turnip country, and consequently not much of a sheep- 
breeding country, but little autumn sowing on the stubbles has been done, 
except to resow the clovers and rye-grasses, the spring sowings having been 
nearly all destroyed by drought. Nearly the whole of the stubbles have thus 
been resown ; and the seeds are now up, and promise to stand the winter well. 
Tares and rye have been sown to a greater extent than usual, but it is rather 
for food for horses another spring and summer, than for sheep food during the 
winter. A good many of the fallows which should have been sown with 
coleseed in July, had the weather permitted, have been sown in August and 
