294 
Farming of Hampshire. 
Seeds are fjenerally, in tliis district, sown with barley, and 
not with oats, the oat-stubbles being put to winter vetches, which 
are followed by turnips, and so the land brought round to wheat. 
The cultivation of sainfoin is a leading feature in chalk- 
farming ; in fact, out of the reach of water-meadows, no flock- 
master can dispense with it. The hay is the best keep for the 
winter, the feed for the summer. The early heavy lambs could 
not be raised without it, and sainfoin aftermath never scours, 
like many seeds ; nor is the plant so liable to failure as clover 
(though this may arise from too frequent repetition on the same 
spot) ; the land rests under it, and {sic fenmi) is actually improved 
by it. The succeeding wheat crop is large in quantity and 
excellent in quality, and no other preparation gives wheat a 
brighter colour or a heavier weight. A seventh or eighth part 
of the arable is usually laid down to sainfoin, sown, like any 
other seeds, with barley, when the ground is in good heart, 5 
bushels to the acre, with a little trefoil ; the common Hampshire 
sainfoin is generally preferred to the giant. The sheep may be 
run over it the same season. The first year it is generally fed, 
sometimes cut for seed ; the second year it is cut once, just as it is 
coming well into flower, and afterwards fed ; the third year it is 
sometimes mown, sometimes continually fed. If, as is often the 
case, it lies down for four, five, and even six or more years, 
the land gets foul with running grass, called " black grass," which 
forms almost a continuous turf. When it stands for the shorter 
period, the land can be put to wheat, like a clover-ley, and can 
be brought round again to sainfoin in eight years ; otherwise 
fourteen or fifteen years must elapse befoie it can be repeated, 
and the ground should be pared and burnt, and put to turnips. 
A general and a convenient practice is, to make the sainfoin 
adapt itself to the length of the rotation, whatever that may be. 
The hay is of first-rate quality and bulk, a quarter or even a half ton 
more than clover. There is a great complaint of the adulteration 
of sainfoin seed with burnet, which is not to be distinguished 
except the seed be milled, and with difficulty then. This is a 
mischievous plant, spreading much more rapidly than sainfoin, 
and choking the good crop. 
The sorts of wheat preferred are Spalding, Hopetown, Taunton, 
Chidham, and Nursery, which last is becoming a very favourite 
wheat, especially for late sowing. Of oats, Black and White 
Tartar. Of barley, Chevalier, Nottingham, and Golden Drop. 
The produce of wheat is generally from 24 to 28 bushels per 
acre ; oats 40 ; barley rather less ; turnips, swedes, and man- 
golds, 12 to 20 tons ; sainfoin 1^, clover and rye-grass 1. 
In the Report on the Agriculture of Hampshire, drawn up 
by Messrs. Abraham and William Driver, for the Board of 
