Fanning of Oxfordshire. 209 
repay for subsoiling. The white Belgians produce the g^-eafest 
weight, but the red are best in quality. The seed is mixed with 
ashes and drilled in rows about a loot apart in the middle of 
April ; and the plants are set out at a distance of 4 or 5 inches. 
Carrots, like white turnips, can be grown too large, but the 
greatest swedes are invariably the most nutritious. 
Rape is sown broadcast in May or June, and should be ready 
for folding in 8 or 10 weeks : where mixed with vetches, and 
sown early in May, it makes capital food for weaning lambs. It 
is an excellent preparation for wheat on clay soils, but is seldom 
grown on light land. 
Mustard is sometimes grown on wheat stubble, directly after 
harvest, to be folded off or ploughed in as a preparation for 
another corn crop. It may follow vetches when too late to 
venture on turnips, or it is occasionally sown on a fallow fcT 
wheat. It is useful as producing a large quantity of vegetable 
matter in an incredibly short time, as in six weeks from the time 
of sowing it will sometimes be as high as the hurdles. Though 
the sheep occasionally eat it with avidity, it docs not seem to do 
them much good. About a peck per acre is sown broadcast, anji 
it is never saved for seed in this county. 
Cabbages might be grown to a greater extent on the heavy land 
than they are at present. Drumheads are the kind mostly culti- 
vated. There are two seasons for sowinj; the cabbaijes in the 
seed-bed : in Aur/ust, in which case they are transplanted to the 
land in the end of October, and serve for sheep-feed in the 
following May and June ; or in February, in which case thej 
are set out from Mav to July, and can be consumed at any period 
of the winter. This latter sowing is the most useful, and most 
generally adopted. Cabbages require a liberal application o-f 
dung — 15 or If! loads per acre. Ttie plants are taken from the 
seed-bed, the strongest being pulled out first, and are planted a 
yard apart : nearly 5000 plants are required lor an acre. Cab- 
bages will commonly weigh 10 or 12 lbs., but several of those 
grown at Eynsham this season reached 24 lbs. 
As the various fallow crops are under consideration, the culti- 
vation of the naked summer fallows on the clay lands must he 
glanced at. At some period of the autumn or winter the stubble 
ground receives the first ploughing, but sometimes the operatio.n 
is deferred to May. After the spring corn is planted the fallows 
are cross-ploughed, and then may be harrowed and rolled ; hui 
the ground is not finely pulverized, as, should wet set in, the 
land is apt to run together and form a compact mass. It is not 
heeded how rough the fallow may be, the object being to let the 
sun and air into the land, and keep the ground hollow. After a 
few weeks the clods crumble down and the land may be -worked y.- 
VOL. XV. P 
