372 Drainage of the Upper Thames Valley. 
We have now to consider the method employed in' breaking up 
those parts of the district which have been brought into tillage 
in consequence of the formation of the embankment, and the 
results arising therefrom, so far as they can be ascertained at 
present. In the spring of the year in which the works were 
completed (1867), the land intended to be broken up was breast- 
ploughed and burnt, at a cost of about 11. Is. per acre. The 
ashes were then scattered, and the land ploughed up by the 
ordinary horse-ploughs about 2 inches deep, and prepared in 
the usual way for receiving seed. It was then sown with roots — 
partly mangold, partly swedes, and partly turnips, without 
manure of any kind, and produced good crops of all. The roots 
were of good feeding quality, and were for the most part fed off 
on the ground. The sheep fed on them had nothing except the 
roots given them, beyond a little hay, and were from time to 
time sent to the butcher direct from the ground. The average 
number of sheep so fed was about six per acre during the whole 
of the winter. The rotation of crops during the first five years 
on this newly broken ground is as follows : — First year — Roots. 
Second and third years — Spring corn, usually barley. Fourth year 
— One half Italian rye-grass, followed by turnips, one half roots. 
Fifth year — Spring corn again. After this the usual four-field 
system is pursued. The land is ploughed about half an inch 
deeper each year than it was the year preceding. In some few 
instances the first crop in the newly broken land was oats instead 
of roots ; but this did not succeed nearly so well as the roots, 
as the land produced only about 2 qrs. to the acre, and the 
barley crop in the second year was not nearly so good after the 
oats as after the roots. No wheat is sown during the first few 
years, that crop not being considered suitable on newly broken 
ground. The crops on the newly broken land this year (the 
fourth) are partly Italian rye-grass, partly roots ; but the rye- 
grass has been already eaten off on the land by the ewes and 
lambs in the spring and early summer, and the land on which 
it grew has been ploughed up and sown like the rest, with 
roots. The ewes and lambs were folded upon this in the usual 
way, the lambs being allowed to run forward through a Iamb- 
hurdle, and the flock being put on a fresh piece of pasturage 
each day, but the portion over which they had previously been 
folded being left open to them. To sum up in a few words this 
part of the subject, the land, before the embankment, was worth 
at the most 15a'. per acre ; now, where it is broken up, and 
when it shall have got into actual ordinary cultivation, it is, or 
rather Avill be, Avorth at least 305. per acre. 
The following is Dr. Voelcker's analysis of the soil of some 
of the land which has been broken up, with his remarks thereon. 
