Agriculture of Nottinghamshire. 
13 
the serious injury that is occasioned to the barley by such ram- 
pant growth of various plants at its roots. Is it not probable that 
the exuberant growth of clover, and its accompanying grasses, is 
equally hurtful to the cereal crop, whether wheat or barley, with 
the exuberant growth of so many weeds, if they were permitted, 
but which are, by all good farmers, carefully removed? Another 
great evil in allowing the clover to make so much head arises 
from the increased difficulty of harvesting well the barley crop. 
Now, by drilling in the barley in the first instance, and when it 
well covers the ground to hoe in the clover seeds, will, in our 
humble opinion, in most seasons be found far better as regards 
the grain crop, and not, in the end, much worse as relates to the 
seeds. Of red clover 12 lbs., with half-a-peck of rye-grass, to 
the acre is generally found sufficient. For summer pasturage 
is required of white or Dutch clover 10 lbs., with 2 lbs. of rib- 
grass, and 2 lbs. of trefoil, accompanied by 2 pecks of dwarf 
rye -grass. 
The season for cutting the early- sown barley is rarely retarded 
beyond the last week in July or the first in August. This is 
most commonly done by the scythe, which is followed by a wo- 
man, who gathers the mown corn into sheaves by means of a rake 
having three or four long iron teeth ; she places the sheaf upon 
a straw band, made usually by one of the children. The man 
then binds the sheaves, and, as he returns to the point from 
which he started, the woman carries his scythe. In this manner 
an active family will clear 5 roods in the day, for which they re- 
ceive from 5s. to Is. 6d. an acre, according as the crop may be 
light or heavy, including the stooking and raking afterwards. 
From the more than ordinai'y scarcity of pasturage which the 
occupier of these dry soils has to contend with during the months 
of August and September, he is generally obliged to stock the 
young clover during the autumn, and, perhaps, if not eaten too 
low, it may be benefited by the treading of sheep, more than 
injured by the pasturing. It is, however, the invariable custom 
to clear the ground before the severe frosts come on, and to allow 
nothing to go upon them until the following spring, when they 
are required for the ewes and lambs. With these they are, in 
most cases, stocked ; and, when an allowance of half-a-pound of 
linseed- cake to each ewe is made, they will often carry five or six 
ewes and their lambs to the acre up to weaning- time, but the 
number kept depends much on the moisture of the season. The 
red clover is generally mown for fodder for the working horses 
during the winter months, the after crop being reserved for the 
lambs when weaned. The propriety of pasturing lambs on the 
second crop of red clover has been much debated, as great losses 
frequently ensue from it ; such, in particular, has been the case 
