Farming of Dorsetshire. 405 
6. Old clover (fed till about June, then turnips, with one 
ploughing — fed off). 
7. Wheat. 
A great deal of manure is made on the farm, and the expendi- 
ture on artificial manures is considerable. The bulk is applied 
to the turnip crop, the land being topped with 10 cart-loads of 
put dung, and the seed drilled with 1 qr. of bones and 1 cwt. of 
superphosphate, and 4 put loads of compost, chiefly made by 
pigs, per acre. The land must be ploughed very thin when 
turnips are grown on old ley, so tliat the old swath is not taken 
up for wheat. The two year old leys are manured for wheat with 
farm-yard dung ; guano being sown broadcast upon the wheat in 
spring, when necessary. The custom of the country is to sow 
clovers with barley ; but Mr. Saunders finds they take much 
better if harrowed-in, in April, on wheat, after turnips. Very 
large ciops of clover are gained in this course, and " sickness " is 
never known. From 14 to 16 acres of mangold are raised on the 
farms every year. The land has six or eight loads of dung to 
the acre ploughed-in, in the autumn, and is well ploughed and 
worked in the spring, when it receives a second dressing of yard 
manure, balked in ; 2 cwt. of guano being sown broadcast on the 
open drills before the dung is covered. The horse-hoe is put 
into the turnips when they are very young, to kill chickweed, to 
which the farm is subject. Nearly every crop receives three 
horse-hoeings, and after the hoeings small tines are fitted into the 
hoe for rape. For this crop the land is well stirred to a depth 
of 5 inches ; two drills are tined at a time, and a pony will get 
over 5 acres a-day. The tines are brought as close up to the 
plant as possible, and the eagerness with which the roots work 
their way into the well pulverised soil is soon apparent in the 
rapid growth of the plant. In manuring for turnips it has been 
found that dung which has lain on the land is more efficacious 
than dung ploughed in direct from the yard. Mr. Saunders has 
always found chalking a remedy for clubfoot in turnips. 
Italian rye-grass is found to furnish a better opportunity than 
vetches afford for cleaning the ground Avell before swedes. This 
kind of land, unless well attended to, is very subject to couch, 
and ttie difficulty of keeping down this troublesome weed is 
increased in Mr. Saunders's case by what are termed " launces " — 
the margins of glebe land, which exist all over his farms, and are 
found such fruitful nurseries for couch and hindrances to clean 
cultivation that a space of 3 feet on either side the " launce " is 
left fallow when preparing for wheat ; the plough and the harrow 
being continually at work upon it. These are the onl}- fallows 
on the farm ; and it is to be regretted that, where such obstacles 
to glean farming exist, a friendly exchange does not remove the 
