The Agriculture of Staffordshire. 
289 
There are various metliotls of treating fallows : one is to give 
a deep ploughing of about 10 inches in autumn, after cultivating 
the stubble, followed in spring by cultivation Avithout ploughing. 
Roots are always grown on the ridge, and the artificial manure 
and dung, when given, are sown in the drills, which are then 
split, rolled, and drilled, with a combined two-row machine. A 
simpler mode, when the land is clean, is to sow the artificial 
manure on the flat, and then form the ridges with the double- 
mould-board plough. This saves one operation. The advantage 
of avoiding spring ploughing has often been discussed. I shall 
only remark that the practice is extending, and that the essential 
points are, first, to free the land from thistles and deep-rooted 
weeds, and to commence with a deep ploughing in autumn. On 
land of less depth, shallower ploughing is adopted. 
When the sandstone rock lies below and too near the surface, 
the fallows are ploughed 3 inches or 4 inches deep up to Christ- 
mas ; they are worked by grubbers in spring, then ploughed 5 
inches deep, and drawn out for the manures. This warm land is 
" given to weeds," and, except after extraordinarily clean farming 
long pursued, a crop of seeds is turned up by deeper ploughing 
sufhcient to smother the growing crop. This is occasionally 
given as a reason for not ploughing deep ; it seems a very bad 
one, but the truth is, the bone is sometimes covered by a thin 
slice of meat, and when an animal is poor by nature, he takes a 
great deal of feeding. This perhaps may illustrate the philo- 
sophy of shallow ploughing on chalks, thin gravels, and sand- 
stone rocks. 
Autumn cultivation is best commenced with the plough ; for 
broadsharing in autumn, however desirable in certain cases, is 
not essential on clean land. The broadshare is a tool which 
repairs previous neglect. A good manager casts it aside, and 
ploughs up his clean stubble at once, instead of wasting time in 
scratching the surface. In the case of land very foul with couch, 
broadsharing is the best mode that can be devised for killing 
a portion and dividing and planting the rest in small bits all 
over the ground. If, however, weeds have seeded in the corn, 
the seed can be started at once by cultivating 2 or 3 inches deep. 
The ridges for turnips are made 24 to 27 inches apart. Swedes 
are sown from about the 19th of May, and sowing is continued 
up to the 20th of June. 
Prepared bone-manures, guano, and the usual artificials, are 
largely used for roots ; guano and nitrate of soda are frequently 
sown in spring as top-dressing for wheat, oats, and barley. Lime 
is in general use here, as in all parts of Staffordshire. It is not 
applied here so frequently as on heavy land, but is applied on 
turnip-land at least once in twelve years in doses of 3 or 4 tons per 
