320 
Farming of Buckinghamshire. 
careous clays dressings of chalk or lime should be applied. 
Lime appears to make some undrained lands colder ; but when 
the water is removed lime is of great service, purifying the sub- 
soil and liastening the decomposition of organic matter. Burning 
clay does much good, if properly performed, l)ut is seldom 
practised in Bucks. It transmutes inert matter that would have 
lain dormant for years, and imparts to it an enriching quality. 
The ashes should be black from slow combustion, not red from 
a strong fire. In addition to the chemical efficacy of burnt 
clay, the ashes act like coarse sand, and improve the texture of 
the soil. When drained and subsoiled, there can be no reason 
why clay-lands should require a fallow every three years. Indeed, 
when the ji roper period of fallow returns in the fourth year, it 
need not be naked and unprofitable, but crops of vetches and 
rape, to be hurdled off by sheep, would furnish a supply of food, 
as well as the very best coat of manure for such land. Stiff re- 
tentive clays might be cultivated upon the four-course rotation, 
thus : — 1st year, rape, vetches, or mustard, fed off in the 
summer ; 2nd, oats ; 3rd, half clover, half beans ; and 4th, wheat. 
There can be no necessity for detailing the proper cultivation of 
these several crops, as they were fully discussed in the last 
number of the Journal. A few mangolds, and especially cab- 
bages, for winter keep, might advantageously be grown on clay 
soils. Tlie latter flourish anywhere, and tliose last year on the 
stiff loams of Lillingstone and on the gravels of Beaconsfield 
were capital crops. It should be the object of the heavy-land 
farmer to provide a supply of winter provender, and keep in 
mind the good old saying, " No food, no stock ; no stock, no 
dung ; no dung, no corn." 
Haddexham Maxor Farm. 
It is more satisfactory to record successful achievements than 
to suggest improvements, so instead of recommending any better 
cultivation of the lighter loams of the county, the subjoined 
account of the management of the Haddenham Manor Farm is 
given as an example of what may be done by good farming. No 
land in Buckinghamshire Avas ever more rapidly improved, and 
the enterprising agriculturist describes the course he so success- 
fully pursued in the following interesting remarks : — ■ 
" The Slimmer of last year (1853) the wliole of the farm -was very foul 
with couch and other weeds, much impoverished, and out of condition. The 
first process was thoroughly to clean and manure the laud, and to drain it 
where required. The next was to get it into something like a rotation of 
crops as near as jiossible on tlie four-course system. 
'• 1st. The swede crop. — The laud having been well cleaned in the sp)ring, 
