280 
Agriculture of Hertfordshire. 
easily cleaned by a summer fallow on the ridge than by any 
other process of horse-tillage. 
In the same locality clod-burning in summer is practised. 
About 20 to 25 bushels. arc burned in heaps about 4 rods apart. 
The ashes are spread and ploughed in with a shallow furrow. 
The cost is 21. per acre. The scourings of ditches, and parings 
of banks and hedges are also burnt and applied to fallows, 30 or 
40 loads per acre. Fallows not so treated receive either a light 
coat of dung, applied at a leisure time, before harvest ; or about 
2 cwt. of guano, or 5 cwt. of malt dust per acre, at the time of 
sowing the barley ; or 1^ cwt. of nitrate of soda in May. The land 
is technically said to be "worn out " previous to the fallow, and 
to require renovating by some of these methods. 
Barley. — 3 to 3^ bushels per acre are drilled as soon as the 
land is in fit condition. The drill is preceded by the scarifier ; 
or if the land is free from deep-rooted weeds, by harrows only. 
Ploughing the fallows in spring, which was formerly thought 
essential to good farming, is now avoided : the success of the 
crop depends on keeping the weathered surface at the top and 
in effecting all the spring operations in dry weather. If heavy 
rain falls on the fresh furrow, or even at the time of sowing, 
before the land has become dry and coated, a hard surface-crust 
will be formed which seals up the young plant. Barley after 
mangold, with about 2 cwt. of guano, is preferred to late sown 
wheat, and yields a good quality. Hoeing is not common. 
Guano for barley is occasionally sown on the fallow in autumn. 
An early application of ammoniacal manure is always bene- 
ficial in preventing the over-luxuriance of straw ; but the best 
practice is to harrow it in in February, or early in March. 
Clover, Sainfoin, Trefoil for Seed, Beans. — The two former 
are grown for hay, with the same management as elsewhere 
detailed. 
Winter beans are increasing in favour as a substitute for clover, 
and, under good management, are a convenient and profitable 
crop. The main points are, never to grow them on land out of 
condition ; to put them in, by drill or dibble, as early as the first 
week of October, and to keep the land perfectly clean by hand 
and horse hoeing. One ploughing at harvest, or even broad- 
sharing only, leaves the land in good order for wheat. The 
deeper the staple of the soil the better for them. Dung is always 
applied to them, unless it had been given to the previous crop of 
barley. The rest of the dung is applied to roots, where they are 
grown ; or otherwise to the fallow for barley and to the clover leas. 
Trefoil is grown alone, and saved for seed. A dressing of dung 
or soot, or guano, is always applied after it ; and the wheat is 
not the worse for the seed-crop if the land was in good heart. 
