218 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
but especially sainfoin, has caused so extravagant a rise in the 
prices demanded, that there cannot be a large extent sown this 
spring. It is the common opinion that old sainfoin seed will not 
grow, but, if freed from its husk, it will vegetate nearly as well 
as new. The sainfoin is often seeded the first year, and for 
three or four subsequent seasons it is grown for hay, and the 
aftermath is fed off by lambs, which do remarkably well on it. 
In the last year it is not mown. The hay is of first-rate quality, 
and sometimes very large crops are produced ; a good average 
may reach 35 cwt. per acre. When the sainfoin is worn out 
the ground is generally pared and burnt for swedes or turnips. 
This operation takes place in March or April, costing about 
20s. per acre. It not only supplies a great quantity of ashes, 
but also kills the wire-worm, grubs, and the larvae of insects, 
which are sure to abound in old sainfoin ley. The ground is 
afterwards rise-baulked, i. e. half ploughed, so that the ashes 
may not be buried too deeply. It then receives a clean earth 
across, and the turnips are drilled. Some cultivators on the 
stonebrash, and nearly all on the chalk hills, plough the old 
turf once and sow it with oats or wheat. At May's farm, near 
Wallingford, the sainfoin forms a regular rotation, 20 acres being 
sown every year and 20 acres broken up. The land selected is 
generally a field of trefoil, sown with the barley after turnips. 
When the trefoil hay is cut the land is ploughed, and a crop of 
mustard sown and penned off. The land is again ploughed, 
and another crop of mustard is taken, which is similarly treated. 
The ground is then planted with wheat in the autumn, and in 
the early spring the sainfoin is drilled across the wheat and 
the seed harrowed in. For two years the first crop is mown, 
and the second fed, and in the third year, directly after the hay 
is carted, the land is rise-baulked or rafter-ploughed. After a 
time this is repeated at right angles to the first ploughing. By 
Michaelmas the sward is well rotted, and the land is all ploughed 
deeply and a crop of wheat grown which then comes in for 
turnips. The residue of the land being cultivated on a four 
course system, the sainfoin takes up a part of the rotation, and, 
as it only lies three years, it could be repeated on the same 
land, if necessary, after the expiration of four. On the stone- 
brash, where it remains down longer, a repetition oftener than 
eight years is not desirable. The old-fashioned sainfoin is 
mostly sown, for, though the giant produces a great bulk of pro- 
vender, it is chiefly grown in small patches for soiling. 
There is nothing very remarkable to commend in the manage- 
ment of the grass lands. It too often happens that the meadows 
are constantly mown and never manured ; and sheep are fed 
on them and removed to the arable land at night. The grass 
