Brra/tiw/ up Graas- Land . 
4-23 
This field having been drained, the occupier, Mr. Cheer, had 
the whole pared by breast-ploughing in February, 1846, paying 
the breast-ploughmen 11.9. per acre. I need hardly explain that 
the men push an instrument before them by the knee, i)aring and 
turning over a thin sward. On part of the land the sward turned 
up was burnt ; very wet weather prevented the burning of the re- 
mainder. It was sown with oats and the produce was as follows : — 
1st Year. Quarters per Acre. 
On land wliere tlie sward was burnt ... 6 
On ditto unburnt 2 
After the oats were housed in August, 1846, Mr. Cheer informs 
me that " he agreed to pay 18a-. per acre for breast-ploughing, and 
burning the same land again, which the men did on three or four 
acres; but the ground got so dry and hard that the men gave the 
job up, until rain fell in October, and then finished breast-plough- 
ing the piece, which, owing to the wet weather, could never be 
burnt; so that the sward turned up was wheeled together before 
sowing the wheat, VVliereit was breast-ploughed and burnt there 
was a very good crop of wheat ; where not burnt there was a very 
bad one." 
2ud Vcav. Per Acre. 
Yield of wheat on land burnt, about . 5 quarters, or 40 bushels. 
Ditto on land unburnt, about ... 5 sacks or 20 ,, 
Mr. Cheer says, that "seeing the good of breast-ploughing and 
burning in the year 1846, on August 17th, 1847, he agam breast- 
ploughed the field, and burned it over well, at about 8^-. per acre 
for breast-ploughing, 10s. per acre for burning, including the 
unburnt sward of the preceding year ; half-a-crown for spreading ; 
then breast-ploughing it again in October, in order to cover the 
seed which was drilled in." The produce just harvested and 
threshed out was, on the field of 1 1 acres, 57^ quarters, or — 
3rd Year. Per Acre. 
Yield of wheat on field entirely burnt . 42^ bushels. 
This last autumn Mr. Cheer again breast-ploughed and 
burnt the land, obtaining 100 bushels of ashes per acre ; and 
requested my consent to sow it a fourth year with a white crop, 
a third year with wheat, which I gave, seeing his previous success, 
on condition of his leaving the land as he proposed two years in 
clover, to be fed off with sheep on the land. 
I now wish only to offer one or two remarks on Mr. Cheer's 
account of the breaking up of ihis grass-field. 
It seems to me more valuable because it is an undesigned 
experiment, brought about by the weather, for I knew little 
of it until two months ago. The account of the yield is by the 
tenant himself, so that there is no risk of favouritism or exaggera- 
tion. 
