Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1872. 317 
and lateness of the season. March, and up to the second or 
third week in April, is found to be the best time for sowing, 
the earlier period being preferred where land is in high con- 
dition. The seed-corn is, by some farmers, dressed, like wheat, 
with sulphate of copper. On some of the best barley land the 
yield reaches 45 bushels, 30 to 35 being considered fair on poorer 
soils. Oats, though seldom grown in Monmouthshire, are exten- 
sively cultivated under the influence of the more humid climate 
of South Wales, On farms where the 5 or 6 course is adopted 
they are taken after clover-lea. The land is ploughed up in 
December or January, well harrowed in March, and drilled at 
the rate of 3 to 4 bushels per acre. The white varieties are 
sometimes attempted, but the Black Tartar seems in most 
favour, producing as it does a heavy weight of well-filled grain,, 
and abundance of bright nutritious straw. Some of the oats we 
inspected will barely yield 30 bushels, while a few patches will 
produce more than double that quantity. Along with the grain-crop 
(be it wheat, barley, or oats) succeeding the fallow break, clovers 
and grass-seeds are sown. The various mixtures differ little from 
those used in the North of England. A usual proportion is the 
following : — 6 to 8 lbs. of red clover or cow-grass, 3 to 4 lbs. 
each of white and yellow clorer, and 2 lbs. of alsike, together 
with ^ a bushel each of English and Italian rye-grass. Where 
land has become clover-sick (a very common occurrence where 
the 4-course system is strictly adhered to), a remedy is generally 
effected by varying the kinds of clover each alternate rotation. 
Thus, land sown this year with the red and yellow clovers, will, 
at the next seeding down, have cow-grass and Dutch-clover. 
With some the custom is to drill the rye-grass at the same time 
as — in fact, mixed with — the grain, and then sow the clovers 
by broadcast-machine. The commoner plan, however, is to mix 
heavy and light seeds together, and either sow them at the time 
the grain is put in, or when it has come through the ground, and 
will bear a light harrowing. 
Where land is intended to remain down three or four years, 1 to 2 
bushels of sainfoin per acre is sometimes added. Sainfoin, in fact, 
is very popular on the thinner limestone soils, and is often grown 
as a self-crop. In this case it is sown along with the wheat or 
barley, at the rate of 2\ to 3 bushels per acre, a little white 
or yellow clover being mostly added. The crop is cut for hay- 
in June or July, and forms a delicious and fattening food, eaten 
greedily by any kind of stock. The aftermath is fed with sheep, 
which, if receiving a liberal allowance of corn and cake, keep up 
the manorial condition of the land, and insure a heavy crop of 
sainfoin for 8 or 10 successive years. The seed-break frequently 
receives a top-dressing of compost or farmyard-manure during the 
