282 
Reclaiming of Waste Lands. 
exception of 8 acres, was rougli forest land. According to the 
terms of the agreement, 10 acres were to remain as copsewood, 
and about 14 acres to be kept in pasture ; therefore there remained 
in round numbers 450 acres to be used as arable land by the 
tenant. The whole of this land would have been cropped the 
first season had not some of the hewn timber been placed on 
certain portions of the farm, and an agreement entered into with 
persons who purchased wood for the manufacture of charcoal, that 
they should be allowed space and turf for their fires, and road- 
ways to draw off the produce during the summer months of 
1858. 
In the spring of 1858, 320 acres were planted with oats ; and 
in the summer of the same year 99 acres were sown with swedes 
and turnips. The cultivation for these crops was done by hand- 
labour : the men worked in gangs of eight, ten, or sixteen to- 
gether. 
For the oat-crop the ground was breast-ploughed about 1^ inches 
deep ; and as soon as it was sufficiently dry it was dragged and 
harrowed by horses. More harrowing was required in the 
roughest places than in other parts where less brushwood had 
grown. Every opportunity was taken when the weather was dry 
to rake together and burn the pieces of turf and rubbish that the 
ploughs had pared off, and the harrows scratched out : by this 
plan immense quantities of ashes Avere made ; some of them 
were carted to large heaps for future use, and the remainder 
spread evenly on the surface ; the oats were then sown broadcast 
{about 4 bushels per acre), then the breast-ploughs with another 
furrow buried the seed-corn and ashes together on the firm ground ; 
an ordinary roller followed ; and after that a bush-harrow was 
drawn over the surface to fill the seams left by the breast-ploughs. 
I should mention that men had previously been engaged in grub- 
bing up small roots and rough places that were likely to impede 
the work. 
The ground allotted for the turnip-crop M as treated in »the 
same manner as the oat-land, except that it had more harrowing, 
dragging, and rolling to get it into fine tilth, and was breast- 
ploughed a third time ; after receiving a dressing of artificial 
manure, composed of two-thirds superphosphate, and one-third 
Peruvian guano, the turnip-seeds were sown broadcast after 
the third ploughing, and merely bush-harrowed once ; the sur- 
face was then made firm with an iron roller. 
On this farm there were nearly six miles of the hi^h banks - 
and deep ditches, the boundaries of the old coppices. These 
were all lowered ; but it was not thought advisable to level them 
entirely in the first year. Since then they have been still further 
reduced by ploughing deep furrows inwards ; or where the banks 
