On the Modljications of the Four-Course Rotation, ^'c. 
Sainfoin to stand for one year only lias been substituted by 
iSIr. Coleman for clover on the li<>lit sands and chalks of the 
Earl of Leicester's farm, at Holkham, and he assures me with 
■\ery satisfactory results. He recommends sowing' one-third oi 
the spring corn with clover, one-third with trefoil and sainfoin 
in place of ryegrass, and one-third with sainfoin alone, taking 
care that the clover follows the sainfoin in the succeeding course. 
It has hitherto proved almost impossible, on these remarkably 
light sands, to insure a crop of clover; but by this change the 
difficulty appears to be to a great extent overcome. The red 
clover is found to stand much better, and although the sainfoin 
seed costs about 30s. per acre, Mr. Colc-man finds he can in- 
variably grow more feed than will cover the extra expense. The 
quantity of seed used is four bushels per acre in the husk. Mr. 
Coleman has sown it on barley in April or May, rolling the 
ground previously, so as to insure a firm seed-bed, m Inch is very 
important, and only just covering it with soil. 
On clay soils beans or peas may be advantageously alternated 
with clover, taking in the third year : — 
One-fourth .. .. Eeil clover for mowing. 
One-fourth .. .. Reeds. 
Two-fourths .. .. Beans or peas. 
This course is very commonlv adopted on the stiffer soils of 
Buckinghamshire, the eastern counties, and many other districts. 
It is true that the bean crop is not a very paying one, taking into 
account its expense and uncertainty, but it leaves the land in a 
much cleaner state than clover ; and on mixed arable and 
pasture farms on clay soils, where M inter food is scarcer than 
summer keep, I think the general experience is in favour of this 
course. 
On the farm of that justly celebrated agriculturist, INIr. 
Hudson, of Castle Acre, I have seen a crop of peas followed by 
turnips. The peas were Mintoe's Early Grey ; they were cut 
at the end of July, when not quite ripe, and laid out on an 
adjoining clover ley to ripen ; and by the emjdoyment of a large 
strength of horses, the field of 16 acres was manured, ploughed, 
and sown with turnips the next day. 
I have alluded first to the modifications in the third year of 
the four-course shift, because it is in that part of the rotation 
that they have been most extensively introduced ; but it is not 
only the clover crop that needs a change. 
It does not fall within the province of this report to discuss 
the causes of the extensive destruction of the turnip crop, whether 
by fly, fingers and toes, or mildew ; but I think that the great 
increase of these diseases in those districts that have Ion": srrown 
