406 
Farm Reports. 
the old four-course system was commanding serious attention, 
and compelling a general resort to experiments on a large scale, 
which, however, were held to be merely tentative ' makeshifts.' 
Tares, and in some instances peas, had been tried and found 
unsatisfactory substitutes for clover, chiefly on account of their 
proving " prejudicial to the succeeding corn crop." On the 
deep Wolds rape had been tried, and though a better crop of 
wheat was stated to be the result on the credit side, yet, on the 
other hand, this crop was not available " in the spring and early 
summer, when sheep meat is most in request;" and upon the 
shallow Wold soils we learn that it could not be grown. The 
favourite system twenty years ago was, therefore, to take seeds 
on only one half of the course, and turnips on the remainder. 
On the Eastburn farm a different system has been pursued ; 
it has been attended with the double advantage of avoiding 
clover sickness to any great extent, and of admitting the growth 
of both wheat and a certain quantity of barley, a practice which 
could not be profitably followed on this farm when worked on 
the four-course system. The shift now followed may be 
described as an extension of that system to a seven-course shift, 
namely (1) wheat, (2) turnips, (3) barley, (4) peas, (5) turnips, 
(6) oats, (7) seeds ; but, in point of fact, only a small portion of 
the farm is annually under the system ; the remainder is kept 
on the ordinary four-course, the spring corn being oats instead 
of barley. 
On some Wold farms the relative positions of wheat and oats 
in the rotation are reversed, seeds being sown upon wheat after 
turnips, and oats following the seeds. This plan is adopted 
because it is not safe to grow wheat after seeds on certain cold deep 
soils. Although on this particular farm wheat is taken after 
seeds, it may be useful to recal attention to the reason given by 
Mr. Legard* for the contrary practice, which is followed on 
some other farms, as an indication is thereby afforded of the 
peculiarities of the soil with which we have to deal. 
" The reason why the earlier mode of wheat after seeds has been abandoned 
is this, that on these [the deep Wold] soils, and in this climate, the wheat 
plant was found to be very apt to be turned out in the spring if sown on 
clover-lea, and that no system of rolling or of treading with sheep could 
counteract this tendency. Upon these soils, also, wheat of a finer quality is 
obtained after rape or turnips than according to any other method. Upon the 
thin Wold soils the very converse of this takes place ; wheat after turnips 
does not here succeed well ; the quantity per acre is invariably found to be 
deficient." 
1. Wheat. — On the stronger land the seeds are manured in 
July, immediately after turnip sowing is finished, with about 
* 'Journal Royal Agricultural Society,' vol. ix., p. 112. 
