272 
Agriculture of Hertfordshire. 
may be found even here. As the land is unfit for permanent 
pasture, and the clovers are sold for hay, but few sheep or stock 
of any kind are kept in the summer. In winter the fattening of 
early lambs has long been practised ; some home-bred tegs or 
store-sheep, bought in the. autumn, are also sold fat in spring. 
The common rotation of crops is — 1. Roots; 2. Barley; 3. 
Clover (or mixed grasses) ; 4. Wheat ; often followed by, 5. Oats. 
.Sainfoin, laid down for three years, is common. 
The FalloiQ-Crop. — A few tares are grown for horses, followed 
by white turnips for the ewes and lambs ; trifolium has been 
tried, but it is not liked as sheep-feed, and as hay is coarse and 
unsuited for the London market. Rye for spring-feed is occasion- 
ally grown ; but this and other stubble-crops are generally disap- 
proved, as interfering with the necessary tillage and with the main 
fallow-crop. Mangold is grown to a small extent, and is invalu- 
able for the ewes and lambs in April and May. Swedes are the 
main fallow-crop. Their cultivation in Herts was considered by 
Arthur Young to be in an advanced state, owing- to the command 
of manure : artificial manures have now neutralised this advan- 
tage. Three ploughings are usually given, commencing with a 
6-inch or 7-inch furrow in autumn, by three horses, on wide 
lands. In spring the furrow is turned back, and the scarifier is 
used as often as may be necessary. The field is then set out in 
ridges. 27-inch bouts are the most convenient width for the 
dung-cart. A good marker is made by removing from Garrett's 
horse-hoe the beam which carries the hoes, and substituting one 
with the marking-shares at the required width. About 10 tons of 
dung per acre are laid in the furrows, which, when the land is in 
good order, are made and closed up with the double-breasted 
plough ; 2 cwts. of superphosphate are drilled with the seed. 
When artificial manure only is used the rows are 24 inches 
apart, and about 4 cwts. of superphosphate are used. This is' 
the usual system ; when higher farming is practised, li cwts. 
or 2 cwts. of guano in addition are sown in the ridges. 
Repeated horse-hoeings are given. The cost of hand-hoeing 
is 6s. 9r/. per acre : viz. chopping out the young plant, 2s. Gd. ; 
singling by women and children a week after, Is. 3d. ; after- 
cleaning, 3s. That part of the crop, which will not be used 
before Christmas is partially heaped and earthed in the field at 
7s. per acre, topping and tailing included. An old-fashioned 
practice, not abandoned though inferior to the last, is drawing 
out a trench or furrow, every 4 yards, with two deep bouts of the 
plough, placinrj the swedes, with their leaves and roots on, side 
by side in the furrow, and then ploughing back the earth to 
them. The root and top are thus kept alive, and the Irulb in great 
measure protected from alternations of frost and thaw. In mild 
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