434 
Sutherland Reclamation. 
Lubvrcc. — On Xo. IV. farm ploughing was commenced in Maj 
1876; three double-engine sets of tackle were employed, and the 
work was pushed on with such marvellous celerity that the whole 
of the farm was under crop in 1877. It might be expected that 
when 350 acres were sown with oats and 50 acres with turnips, 
on land that had a few months previously been unbroken moor, 
much of the seed would prove to have been wasted. It says 
much for the efficiency of the " discer," that with a very liberal 
application of artificial manure, a crop of oats was obtained that, 
in July 1877, gave a promise of yielding an average of from 4^^ 
to 5 quarters over the whole breadth. In previous years nitrate 
of soda and guano were tried for oats, but gave much straw and 
little corn. The dressing for oats in 1877 was 4 cwt. of super- 
phosphate per acre, on each field of the No. III. and No. IV. farms ; 
but in 1878 and 1879 the top-dressing for oats was reduced to 
2 cwt. of superphosphate. This farm is intended to be under a 
six-course rotation, viz., oats ; three years grass ; oats ; and lastly 
turnips. Fields jSos. 2 and 9, 4 and 8, 6 and 7, will be culti- 
vated together, and in this way there will eventually' be 70 
acres under each course of the rotation : oats were considered 
to be the most profitable crop for newly broken land, and the 
whole farm was therefore put under oats, except 50 acres of 
turnips and 3 acres of peas. It is a very costly process to at- 
tempt to reduce newly broken land to a fit state for sowing 
turnips by merely mechanical means ; the tilth thus obtained 
can never be equal to that which has been gradually mellowed 
down by long exposure to atmospheric influences. It was, how- 
ever, considered so important to secure some turnips at any 
cost, to be consumed with the great quantity of straw on this 
farm, that the attempt was made in two of the new fields. 
Field No. 1 (68 a. 1 r.). In 1877, 30 acres in oats, a good 
crop ; 3 acres peas, poor ; 37 acres of turnips, a poor crop, in 
spite of very thorough and expensive tillage ; 1878, the whole 
field was twice cultivated by steam, and then harrowed by 
steam. As there was not time to "disc" the land it was thrown 
into open furrows : a dressing of 16 loads per acre of dung 
having been put in with 3 cwt. of superphosphate, 2 cwt. of 
guano, and 1 cwt. of crushed bones, the ridges were then closed 
and the seed sown, viz., 30 acres, at the south end, of swedes 
after oats, and 40 acres, on the north, of turnips after turnips and 
pens. The turnips were a very good crop ; but the swedes 
suffered for want of rain, they covered the ground well on 
the 1st of September, but were uneven in size, the surface of 
the land being rather rough for want of " discing." No roots 
were fed on the land, but both turnips and swedes were carted 
off. The land after turnips was ploughed by horses, that after 
