Management of Clay Lands for Sheep- Feeding. 529 
horses ; harrow, three horses ; roll, two horses ; harrow, two horses ; 
mix manure and distribute, two horses ; drill, two horses ; roll, one 
horse. Expenses, taken on eight acres, 4/. lis. 3d., or lis. 5d. an 
acre. This comes to rather less than the mangold land, because it is 
done later in the spring, when the land works easier. 
The next jwint 1 have to deal with is the bare whiter fallow, where a 
piece of land is not cropped at all . We plough that with three horses 
at a convenient season in winter, and put in winter tares in February : 
cultivating as for rape on mangold land. The expense, taken on eight 
acres, is 11. 13s., or 19s. lid. per acre. 
The process of feeding off the summer green crop is of course the 
preparation for (he first years crop of wheat. The expenses, as shown 
in the diagram, amount only to 11. 4s. 3d. per acre — a very import- 
ant reduction on the usual cost of preparing for the wheat-crop on 
heavy land farms. 
These, then, are all the details of my system of management. Its 
principal feature is — that between two succeeding crops, whether corn 
or otherwise, ample time is allowed to prepare a good weather- 
made surface for the seed which is next to come. Another important 
feature is that the root-crop we have raised at so much expense may 
be consumed at the precise time when it is most profitable and con- 
venient to do so. Under the old system you know the spring-corn 
is hanging over head, which must be got in by a certain time and 
consequently the roots must be got rid of — as they say in Suffolk, the 
roots must either be " puddled in " or " muddled off " the land ; but 
by this com'se of cropping I avoid that difficidty, and I give myself 
sufficient time to consume a large amount of green crop upon the 
land when it will bear sheep. 
In reply to Lord Berners, 
Mr. Hughes said he drilled as much rape as he did of swede turnips 
— about two pints per acre, with about one pint of mustard. He com- 
menced drilling it in April, went on until June, and mixed it all the 
time. He looked upon mustard as useful, but rape was the plant ; 
indeed, that which he grew after turnips last year, upon the stiffest 
clay he had ever seen, was of such enormous bidk that this year he had 
taken his turnip platform into the field, put on the chaff-cutter, and 
cut up the whole crop for the sheep. The, wages he paid were 
10s., lis., and 12s. a week to the labourer, and 8d. a day to the 
women ; but they were about to be raised. The horses cost only 
Is. Grf. a day ; but he had the advantage of having a considerable run 
for them in the summer, when he got rid of them for a long time. He 
hired his land five years ago, at 7s. an acre, and the rent was an 
increasing one. He drilled his oats in rows of 8 feet, and he hoed 
once before putting in the seeds. 
In reply to Mr. Thompson and others, 
Mr. Hughes said, that, in growing wheat after two successive green 
crops had been fed off, the wheat was not too heavy, if only planted 
early and thin. He used H peck of wheat and 3 bushels of oats to 
the acre. The number of sheep he kept varied with the state of the 
knarkets. Until this year ho had generally kept Dorset ewes, which 
