20 
On the Farming of Essex. 
return from tlie land, but certainly not without a corresponding 
outlay in labour. 
The usual system, however, is what is termed the four-course 
shift, which, in eight years, will stand thus — sometimes, how- 
ever, oats are taken after wheat with good success, and are allowed 
in the covenants of leases to the extent of one field only — 
1st. Turnips, 5th. Mangold-wurzel or Swedes, 
2nd. Barley, 6th. Oats or Barley, 
3rd. Clover, 7th. Peas or Beans, 
4th. Wheat, 8th. Wheat. 
If oats are taken in succession after wheat it would be done in 
the fifth year, and the course of cropping would then proceed as 
described. 
The probable result will be, upon well farmed land, as fol- 
lows : — 
1st. Turnips manured 15 to 24 tons per acre. 
2nd. Barley „ 40 to 48 bushels per acre. 
3rd. Clover „ H to 1| ton per acre. 
4th. Wheat . . - „ 28 to 32 bushels per acre. 
5th. Mangold-wurzel ,, 20 to 30 tons per acre. 
6th. Oats „ 48 to 56 bushels per acre. 
Barley „ 40 to 48 bushels per acre. 
7th. Peas or Beans (precarious) „ 28 to 32 bushels per acre. 
8th. Wheat „ 28 to 30 bushels per acre. 
This would be the probable result upon good farms with high 
cultivation ; upon second-class farms, 4 bushels less of wheat, 6 of 
barley, and 8 of oats would be grown ; the average of the district 
may be taken as the mean between the two quantities. 
A covenant of lease and custom prevails not to allow clover to 
be mown twice in one year. This should be exploded, as the 
land is not injured by two mowings ; and if the hay from one crop 
is expended, it is more than equivalent in return of manure than 
if the whole was fed by sheep. 
Little can be offered, in a general description of the cultiva- 
tion of a county or district, beycmd that of merely stating the sys- 
tem of cultivation carried out by the best farmers, who, from long 
experience and practice, in most instances succeed better than a 
stranger who introduces a new system ; for it happens that 
strangers rarely succeed so well as those who from their youth 
have been identified with a particular locality. This is especially 
true as regards this county, as very few farmers from distant 
counties, who have come under my notice, have succeeded here. 
And so it is as regards winter fatting ; upon the clay and reten- 
tive soils it is very true that fine crops of turnips can be very 
frequently produced, but this is always at the expense of a large 
