Light-Land Farming. 
119 
Barley Crop. — As fast as the land is teathod, it is lightly 
ploughed into 12-yard stetches, and in spring it is grubbed or 
scarified to mix the teatli thoroughly with the soil. The seed is 
then drilled a(;ross or in the line of the first ploughing at the 
rate of 2^ to 3 bushels per acre, then harrowed lightly, tlie seeds 
sown broadcast, and covered by one turn of a set of grass-seed 
harrows. Another mode of cultivation very suitable for liglit 
soils is to scarify the land instead of ploughing it after the fold, 
then to plough and press-roll it in spring, sowing the seed at the 
same time by a machine attached to and drawn by the axle of 
the presser ; or where such an apparatus is not attached, the seed 
may be sown broadcast, and as the greater proportion of it falls 
into the channels made by the presser-wheels, the young plants 
will come up in rows the same as if the seed had been drilled in. 
When the crop is ripe the usual way in the south is to mow 
it with the scythe, but in the north it is thought much more 
satisfactory to bind it into sheaves and set these up in stooks. 
There is thus less chance of sprout and more conveniency for 
carting, stacking, and threshing. 
The subsequent clover crop is partly mown and partly fed off. 
If there be plenty of litter through the summer, a large proportion 
of the crop may be consumed in-doors by cattle, so as to increase 
the manure heap, and the remainder fed off; but those propor- 
tions will be regulated by the conveniences which each farmer 
has in respect to accommodation and litter. 
Wheat Crop. — That portion of the land where the clover has 
been mown off should be manured with 8 to 10 cartloads of 
dung per acre after harvest, and the whole clover break should 
then be ploughed and press-rolled, and sown exactly as in the 
case of the barley crop. Light land should not be much or 
deeply ploughed, and one ploughing followed by a heavy press- 
roller will make a finer and mellower seed-bed than can be at- 
tained in any other way. The rows of wheat should be skim-hoed 
in spring, and when the crop is ripe it may be either mown or 
reaped, but in either case bound up in sheaves and placed in 
stooks of 12 to 14 sheaves each, and when dry carried to the 
yard and stacked in round stacks, as in the north of England and 
Scotland. A round stack is more convenient for building and 
pitching than the square or oblong one, because the builder is 
always within reach of a sheaf pitched to the middle of the stack, 
and at the same time always at equal distances from it, while 
the man who pitches has a shorter distance to throw the sheaves 
than on an oblong or square rick. This completes the work of 
the four-course rotation, but if sixes be adopted then a mixed 
crop of mangold, vetches, potatoes, or peas follows the wheat 
crop. 
