48 
Farming of Cambridgeshire. 
be adopted by the occupier of light land are, first, to obtain the 
heaviest crop of turnips he possibly can, at the least expense ; this 
secures a crop of barley : secondly, to secure a good plant of 
seeds, which will ensure a good plant of wheat. 
The plan of not sowing the seeds mixed is extending, as it is 
found the lands are getting " clover sick." Many of our best 
farmers now sow red clover only once in 16 years, getting the 
seed-shift into the following rotation; — 1st, white clover; 2nd, 
trefoil ; 3rd, peas or tares, fed off or seeded ; 4th, red clover. 
Thus only can we now obtain good crops of red clover. 
The quantity of red clover sown per acre is from 15 to 20 lbs. ; 
of white clover, from 12 to 20 lbs. ; of trefoil, from 25 to 30 lbs. 
per acre. This district is a fine barley country, sending to the 
large malting towns of Bishop-Stortford and Ware vast quantities 
of the very finest description of malting barley. 
Third Year — Clover, Peas, or Tares. 
Some of the clovers are dunged in the winter for mowing for 
hay ; the rest generally sheep-fed. Some of each variety are left 
for seed by some farmers, and it is desirable to do so to a certain 
extent, not so much in consequence of the return as for the pur- 
pose of enabling us to give a winter's employment to men with 
large families ; the parents threshing or cobbing the straw, the 
children being employed in rubbing out the seed on what is 
called a clover-rubber, which is made about 6 feet long by 3 feet 
wide, and the bottom made with tin plates full of holes punched 
inwards, so that the rough side is like a nutmeg-grater, only the 
holes considerably larger. In this district a portion of the trefoil 
is left for a crop, and if got well in fine weather, the straw is 
very useful for the winter foddering of horses instead of hay ; and 
in this district, where so little grass-land is found, and that not of 
a good quality, it proves a very useful substitute. As soon as the 
harvest is over, and that portion of the fallow intended for swedes 
and mangold ploughed up, they commence ploughing the seed- 
layers for wheat, and this is done as shallow as possible, and 
kept well rolled down with a heavy roll after the ploughs. Some 
use a drill-roll, with four horses : I believe it is impossible to get 
the lands for wheat too solid on these dry light soils. 
Fourth Year — Wheat. 
The land having been well rolled down, it is now well har- 
rowed, and the seed drilled with from 2 to 3 bushels per acre of 
wlieat, as we are obliged U) sow thus thick, particularly on the dry 
chalky hills. Those parts of tlie layer that are neither dunged 
nor folded liave generally from 3 coombs to 2 quarters of rape- 
