Practical Agriculture. 
593 = 327 
:h sand loams, with veins of the gault clay in places, very 
<cessive systems of cropping are pursued ; as INIr. Edward Little 
(•served in his Report on the county thirty years ago, the object 
I those who occupy sand land is to keep it manured as highly 
; possible and shaded with a crop of either corn or green food. 
irley is grown to some extent ; on the deep ^oils wheat is taken 
i ry alternate year, and mangold has taken the place of a 
] rtion of the turnip break. 
Sheep are folded all the year round, alike on the downs, the Sheep folding, 
pen crops, the artificial grasses, the roots, and the irrigation- 
j-?adows. When grazed upon the open sheep-walk or scantily- 
jstured downs, the ewes are driven to the folds on the arable 
ilds at night, where they are crowded, often two thousand 
Siep upon an acre, in daily shifted folds, in winter and spring 
eriching the ground for barley and turnips, and in summer 
al autumn manuring it in this way for wheat. Sometimes 
i'is a portion of the ploughed wheat-stubble which is under 
ts treatment ; sometimes the folding is upon straw carted 
ti spread upon the land early in winter, and then ploughed 
i to lie till spring as a preparation for the turnip crop. The 
sae process is also adopted by some farmers for wheat. The 
s ep are not only employed as manure carriers and dressers of 
t land, but are also worked for the purpose of firming the 
sd-bed directly after the wheat is put in, either drilled or 
h id-sown upon the seam-pressed furrows. A flock of several 
hidreds are driven in close order to and fro over the ground, 
s idifying it by their treading ; this being done in early morning 
fr about three hours each day, and plots of eight or ten acres 
d ly treated in turn, until the whole has been gone over. 
The north-west or oolite district is distinguished by smaller Oolite district, 
fi ns, lesser inclosures often over-stocked with hedge-row timber; 
a I noted for its grazing and dairying, as well as for its stone- 
bsh turnips and sheep-farming and its clay-land corn farming. 
C the oolite or stone-brash lands the four-course rotation is 
g erally followed upon the thin, and a five-field course by 
h ding on the clover for a second year on the deeper soils ; but 
1 ly farmers take two green crops in succession, and some two 
t:<i crops together. 
)n the dairy farms potatoes are much grown ; and a belt of 
1-loam near Calne supplies carrots, turnips, green-peas, and 
r vegetables for town consumption. It is on the adhesive 
areous clays and on the strong loams, growing vetches, rye, 
other sheep-keep, followed by wheat, the clover or seeds 
J ken up for beans, and wheat again, that steam cultivation 
h achieved some of its most remarkable transformations both 
he soil and management. 
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