530 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 
he fatted with their lambs ; but as there was a prospect of mutton 
being dear, he had this year fatted wethers instead, so that he was 
saved trouble with ewes and lambs, and enabled to feed rather more 
wethers than owes, because provision had to be made for the wants 
of the lambs. He had a good deal of old pasture, but the sheep never 
saw it till after the clover-lands were ploughed in spring, In a wet 
spring the sheep were driven to a dry pasture till they could go to the 
turnip-lands again. He kept a great many colts and pigs, but no 
bullocks at all. 
Mr. J. HowARn asked what Mr. Hughes did with his horses at 
Michaelmas, and during the autumn months, seeing that he left the 
clover-ley until spring, and the fallows untouched until January, or 
later in the year ? 
Mr. Hughes said that he put in winter beans and winter oats, cleaned 
and tilled the bean-land, and carted off all that was required of the 
mangold, and some early turnips for the ewes and lambs in the spring. 
Ho did not use so many horses under this system as he formerly 
did ; and ho had had no idle horses in autumn since he had farmed 
clay-land. 
Mr. Howard was sure that he had not in the spring, when the great 
bulk of his work appeared to be done. He agreed with Mr. Hughes 
as to growing tares instead of roots on strong land. For many years 
that had been the custom in Bedfordshire, and a better crop of wheat 
was got after it. His experience of autumn cultivation, however, 
was, that the sooner after harvest clay-lands were broken up the better ; 
and he suggested that if Mr. Hughes got a steam-cultivator on his clay- 
land he would have some advantage in breaking-Tip in the autumn, and 
would not find the land so tenacious after treating it in that manner ; 
nor, indeed, would it be necessary to put it up in 8-fcct bands or 
ridges, as clay lands when broken up at a great depth and laid flat 
require no furrow. 
Mr. Hughes would be only too glad to find that the steam-cultivator 
could be used with advantage on such ground as the Hampshire hills, 
with their stiff clay soil. He admitted that he got out of the 8-feet 
ridge whenever he could ; but his chief reason for maintaining it upon 
his farm was that his land was so dependent on the seasons that by 
this means alone he was often enabled to snatch an opportunity to pop 
on his harrows and drills, and put in his corn, the horses walking in 
the furrows, whereas, if they were walking on the flat surface they 
would make a furrow with their feet. 
Mr. Howard thought Mr. Hughes entirely wrong in the conclusion 
that steam was not adapted to hilly land. On the contrary, the more 
hilly a country was the greater would be the advantage of steam, for 
the simple reason that such land was more difficult to cultivate with 
horses, and there was a larger margin of profit on the employment of 
steam. Where a horse could go, steam could go there better. 
Mr. Thompson said that he had some particularly heavy clay-soil, 
and he found that the great thing was to have it as dry as possible : it 
then became mellow, and more easily worked with less labour. He 
thought that by ploughing in autumn they would generally secure a 
