114 
Autumn Cleaning of Stubbles. 
spread the ashes. 2nd. To mix lime with the vegetable matter when 
carted to some convenient spot. 3rd. To cart it to the homestead, 
where it serves to form the bottoms of the cattle yards. Fine 
weather is indispensable to the carrying out of the first plan — 
and given this condition we believe it is the cheapest and 
most effectual means of destroying all weeds, and therefore the 
one to be adopted where the soil is not injured by the contact of 
ashes as a manure. The burning costs about 2s. an acre. As 
the weather is very changeable at this time of the year, the 
whole of the turnip fallow would scarcely be got over without 
some rain ; in this case we should prefer the application of lime 
as the most efficient means of destroying vegetable matter and 
converting it into valuable manure. The last method we deem 
unsatisfactory, and the expense of carting backwards and for- 
wards would deter us from following it, unless debarred from 
the other two. Some farmers send men into the stubbles with 
forks to dig out the patches of couch, which they throw into a 
cart, convey to a part of the field, and lay in a long heap. 
Dung is afterwards carted on, and the whole being turned, it 
is applied to the next cro]). This is an expeditious way, 
but we cannot recommend it, as the treading is detrimental to 
the land, and the operation could be performed better by the 
scarifier. 
Subsequent Management of Land if kept bare till Turnip 
Solving. — We come now to the most important divisions of our 
subject, to which the former part is only subsidiary. From the 
immense difference in the descriptions of soil which by the aid 
of superior cultivation are made to produce turnips, it is im- 
possible to describe a system which is applicable to all ; in our 
present remarks, therefore, we shall give a comparison of different 
methods on a somewhat tenacious turnip soil, situated on the 
chalk, and capable of being ploughed with three horses to the 
depth of 7 inches. We shall afterwards qualify our assertions 
in the case of very heavy or light sandy land. The following 
experiment was conducted under the writer's superintendence 
in the autumn and spring of 1851-52. The autumn of this 
year was dry and well suited to the use of the scarifier. About 
20 acres of stubble were pared with Bental's broadshare imme- 
diately after harvest ; this was followed by the grubber and 
harrows to collect the weeds which were finally raked in heaps, 
ljurnt, and spread. The land was then ridged, which is done 
by a single turn of the plough, each furrow lajjping over on the 
whole ground and meeting in the middle. Five of these went to 
a rod in order to accommodate them to a 7-foot drill. The 
ground was allowed to lie undisturbed till the following spring, 
