524 Somersetshire Farm-Prize Competition, 1875. 
about 2 tons per acre, of fresh-slacked lime was then applied 
and well intermingled with the soil by dragging. Turnips and 
rape were afterwards sown, harrowed in, and the land Avell con- 
solidated by rolling. Lime is procured from the blue lias lime- 
stone, quarried from the sea-bed at Watchet, and delivered bv the 
mineral railway at 15s. per ton. It is only used for the first 
crop after breaking up the hill pasture. 
After the foregoing preparation the following rotation was com- 
menced, and has not since been deviated from. Oats were the 
first crop grown ; they are sown about Lady Day, and 14 pecks of 
seed per acre are drilled. The land is ploughed as soon after 
Christmas as the weather will permit, and simply harrowed to get 
a good tilth before putting the seed in. After harvest, which is 
usually commenced about the third week in August, the stubbles 
are worked, and cleaned and ploughed to stand for the winter, 
and are left until the following May, when they are again scari- 
fied, ploughed, and otherwise prepared for the root crops. 
A few mangolds and carrots are sown in May ; swedes are 
sown about the 10th of June, and common turnips towards the end 
of June or beginning of July ; about 1^ to 1^ lb. of seed per acre 
being drilled on the flat a distance of IG inches between the rows 
with Reeves Brothers, Westbury, Wilts, manure-drill. Two cwt. 
of dissolved bones, at 6/. 10s. per ton, and 2 cwt. of super- 
phosphate, at 4/. 10s. per ton, mixed with earth and ashes, are 
deposited under the seed, the former costing 13s. and the latter 
9s., making a total of 22s. per acre. 
Farmyard-manure is occasionally ploughed in at the last 
ploughing for swedes. After the turnips are fed off the land it 
is ploughed up, and in the following April sown with rape and 
grass-seeds, either mixed together and sown broadcast with 
2 or 3 cwt. of artificial manure ; or the rape is drilled with a 
similar quantity of manure, and the clovers and grass-seeds dis- 
tributed separately. Mr. Babbage states that when spring vetches^ 
are cheap (say 6s. per bushel), he substitutes them in part for 
rape, drilling 2 bushels per acre, but applying no artificial 
manure, so that the cost amounts to about the same. ^ The grass 
remains down three years inclusive. In seeding out with rape 
(as it is locally termed) the following descriptions and quantities 
of seeds are used : — 
Rape, if drilled, 3 \hs. 
Rape, if sown broadcast, 5 lbs. 
White Dutch clover, 3 lbs. 
Alsike or hybrid ditto, 3 lbs. 
Trefoil, G lbs. 
Italian rye-grass, 3 pecks. 
■ Scotch rye-grass ditto, 2 pecks, or 3 pecks where no Italian 
rye-grass is used. 
