Mr. Blunders Farm. 
275 
e;irthins»- the potatoes by the doubU^ mould-plough, turniji seed 
is sown, and thus " heled ;" the turnips arrive at maturity before 
the potatoes, and are pulled without damage to them. This 
season the potatoes were worth from 18/. to 231. an acre ; and 
the turnips gave 20 tons of roots and 8 tons of tops, which 
last were consumed, with some rough hay and a little cake, 
by the fatting bullocks. For years Mr. Blundell has annually 
sold 300Z. worth of potatoes off the farm ; and one year he 
grew, besides, 460 sacks of wheat. Here potatoes are the 
best possible preparation for wheat ; a good trap, too, for the 
Avire worm, which gets into the skins, is measured off with the 
potatoes, and troubles the farmer no more. Since 1845, Mr. 
Blundell has, on one piece of land of 12 acres, taken wheat and 
potatoes in alternate years, with one exception, when he took 
clover between two wheat crops. He generally also took a crop 
of stubble turnips after the wheat and before the potatoes, feeding 
them off with sheep, which thus in part manured iiis potatoes. 
On the whole the potatoes have been more profitable than the 
wheat, and yet the wheat has run up to 52 bushels per acre and 
63 lbs. per bushel. The stubble turnips are generally put in 
after wheat or oats thus : — before the corn is carried, the plough 
is at work between the sheaves, and thus two-thirds of the ground 
are first sown ; afterwards, the rest. The value of time is suffi- 
ciently shown by the fact that the roots of the portion first sown 
often Aveigh twice as much as those sown, perhaps not more 
than a fortnight later. Swedes Mr. Blundell cannot now grow ; 
his cultivation is too high, and his ground sick of them. He 
also prefers, for all purposes, mangold. Some good carrots, for 
which his soil is well adapted, are grown. All roots are pulled 
and pitted on the ground. The white Canada oat is much in 
favour here, the land in its present state not being suitable for 
barley. Of these oats more quarters can be grown than sacks of 
wheat ; they are also ready to cut a fortnight before the wheat — a 
most important two Aveeks for the stubble turnips. The straw 
also is essential (as we shall see) to the mode of feeding. Mr. 
Blundell has often taken two crops of oats, Avith stubble turnips 
between ; and one crop has been 17 sacks, and the other 
19 sacks an acre, and 45 lbs. a bushel. The cloA'er seeds are 
sown on the wheat ground with a single tine of the light harrows, 
and then rolled. In nine years out of ten, the clover is sufficiently 
strong to be moAvn for cattle, in the same season as that in Avhich 
it is soAvn — in the months of October and November. This year, 
from Avant of Avarmth and sloAvness of vegetation, this feat Avas 
not possible. The clover leys are cut twice or thrice. Very 
little is made into hay, only just enough for the CAves and lambs ; 
the rest is carried green to the fatting and store beasts. Tri- 
