124 
Li(jht-Land Farming. 
to vegetate freely and obtain a good liold of the ground before 
the crop is cut. 
On black rich boggy soils tlie system of cultivation does not 
materially differ from that already detailed, only we may with 
safety permit the grass to lie two years only. The writer has 
found by a rather long and extensive experience that grain crops 
even on rich peaty soils are greatly increased in quantity and 
quality by an application of farmyard manure. The opinion 
that this sort of treatment would render the straw soft and liable 
to fall is very prevalent, but so far as the writer's experience goes 
the very opposite is the result. One instance may be mentioned 
as an illustration. A piece of deep black boggy land was sown 
with vetches, which were manured with dissolved bones and 
guano. The crop was a poor one, having been injured by hoar- 
frost in the early part of summer. After the removal of the 
vetches one portion of the land was top-dressed with rotten rock 
— the rough brown sand of the amygdaloid rock of the trap for- 
mation — at the rate of 500 loads per acre. Another portion was 
manured with twelve loads of farmyard dung, and the whole was 
sown with oats. The crop, after the rotten rock, was much root- 
fallen, and the straw was soft, while that after the dung was tall, 
stout, and yielded nearly twice as much grain. This is not men- 
tioned to disparage the use of sand or gravel on peaty soils, as 
in the above case the rotten rock had too short time to act, but 
to show that an application of farmyard manure, instead of 
softening the straw, had the effect of making it stiffer. On such 
soils, therefore, it will be found highly advantageous to grow the 
turnip crop with bones and guano, eat one-half of the crop off 
by sheep, then sow oats or ryegrass seeds manured with ten 
tons of well-made farmyard dung. The grain crop will be a 
very large one, and the land will carry an abundant growth of 
grass during the two following years. 
The best means of improving the texture of peaty soils is 
claying, but unfortunately clay-marl is not found to any extent 
anywhere except in the English fen districts. The next best 
material is sharp sand or gravel, which, when laid on the surface 
of grass, has the effect of causing the white clover to spring up 
with renewed vigour. As sand sinks very rapidly into peaty 
soils, it should never be ploughed in, but merely harrowed, and 
kept as near the surface as possible. The land should therefore 
be ploughed very shallow for many years after an application of 
sand, in order to keep it as long as possible near the surface. 
