466 
Farming of Devonshire. 
The straw which hass been separated during: this process is re- 
served and passed through the threshing machine. A man can 
make 11 bundles in a day, and when used for thatch less manual 
labour is required than with straw ; it is also much neater in ap- 
pearance, and more durable. The usual price for thatching is 
2s. per square (100 feet), and for a rick of 10 acres of good corn 
about 3.S-., with the usual allowance (2 quarts daily) of cider. In 
addition to the above, the thatcher is suppled with materials for 
making spars, but this labour is included in the above cost. 
If the land is in good condition barley succeeds wheat, and is 
followed by oats; if not, only one additional corn-crop is taken, 
and the land is laid down in grass. The first crop is cut for hay, 
and it is then fed off by cattle or sheep until the land is supposed 
to have regained its exhausted strength. Such, then, is the " old 
Devon course " — a rotation which can scarcely show one good 
qualification, but combines all that we should most strenuously 
avoid. It cannot be too severely condemned, as a good rotation 
of crops is the foundation of farm economy. The reader must 
not suppose that this system exists without many exceptions, 
especially in the neighbourhood of large towns, and throughout 
the principal part of the red sandstone district where improve- 
ments have been introduced. In these cases the four or five 
course is pursued according to the quality of the land, viz., tur- 
nips, barley or oats, clover or grass (one or two years) and wheat. 
The value of this system is too well known to require any com- 
ment, and I strongly urge its adoption in the place of the old 
Devon course as the latter is a complete check to agricultural 
improvement. 
Manures. 
Farm-yard Manure. — Little attention is devoted to the proper 
management of this most valuable fertiliser. It is frequently 
heaped in the most exposed situations, where its ammoniacal com- 
pounds are drawn off by the heat of the sun, and its alkalies and 
phosphates are wasted away by the rain falling on it. The im- 
portant relation which a good supply of rich manure bears to re- 
munerative farming induces me to notice its management more 
minutely. The best mode of collecting this manure is that 
termed the box or pit system. I consider it preferable to stalls, 
from the large quantity of straw converted into manure — the 
more perfect preservation of its fertilising agents as well as the 
ease with which we may control its fermentation. The liquid 
manure which now drains away unchecked in its course is here 
retained in the manure until it is required to yield its fertilising 
matter to the land. Its application is far more efficacious when 
incorporated with the solid portions of the manure than when 
