Continuous Corn Growing. 
47 
not farmed on Mr. Prout's ordinary system. Part of the produce 
is retained and returned to the land ; manure from the cart and 
carriage-horse stable is applied, green crops are grown, and it has 
been in contemplation to lay down a portion in permanent grass 
when it has been raised to a state^of high condition. That it 
has already reached this desirable state is tolerably evident from 
the admirable results it yielded last harvest. Four acres carried 
a magnificent crop of Rivett wheat, which jNIr. Prout, anxious to 
test the yield, bought in for 17/. 1G.9. It must reach 8 quarters. A 
ljushel over that was Mr. Prout's highest return obtained in 1868. 
Four acres were devoted to black Tartarian oats, following 
rve-grass, and produced a yield of 10 or 11 quarters per acre. 
Conterminous were some fine cow-cabbage, suffering apparently 
little from the protracted summer drought, and a couple of acres 
of yellow globe mangold dunged, drilled with dissolved bones, 
thirty inches apart in the rows, a splendid regular plant, from 
which many of the lower leaves have been, with impunity, 
gathered as a honne bouche for the Guernsey cows that supply 
milk for the family and servants. For this crop ]\Ir. Prout had, 
on his sale day, an offer of 20/. per acre. A late planted but 
promising piece of swedes followed a crop of tares, which had 
been consumed by the cart-horses and dairy cows. 
The remainder of the 25-acre home piece was occupied with 14 
acres Italian rye-grass, broadcasted in August, 1873, on freshly 
scarified wheat-stubble, thrice cut, rapid growth being secured 
bv a dressing of 1^ cwt. nitrate of soda applied immediately the 
first cutting was removed. In a former season the rye-grass was 
sold for 20/. per acre, with the privilege of cutting and carrying 
off whatever grew from Lady-day to Michaelmas. 
The busy season at Sawbridgeworth commences whenever 
the stubbles are cleared ; steam and horses are fully occupied ; 
thorough cleaning, horse and hand hoeing have, however, so 
thoroughly extirpated weeds that autumn scarifying is now 
seldom requisite. A furrow of 6 or 7 in. is turned over ; 8 acres 
of such work is daily performed by the 14-horse engine and 4- 
furrow plough. An extra horse or two are occasionally purchased 
to hasten the ploughing and wheat-drilling, for the earlier and 
drier this calcareous clay is ploughed up and planted the better. 
For wheat only one furrow is given. But this autumn 100 acres, 
steam-ploughed in September, were six weeks later worked over 
with the 4-furrow plough, on which the coulters remain as 
usual, but from which the second and fourth mould-boards are 
removed. The ground, thus thoroughly cut and turned over, is 
left in a ridge-and-furrow form with a large surface exposed to 
the beneficial action of the weather, and when harrowed down in 
spring will produce an admirable seed-bed for the Hallet's pedigree 
