Spring Park Farm. 
529 
have at least a foot of dry earth to root in, unaffected by capillary attrac- 
tion of moisture from below, and the chill that water nearer to the sur- 
face causes ; this can be done only by having the drains 4 feet from the 
surface, and within 40 feet of each other. 
* 3. For sowing of spring corn on dry lands, consider the season com- 
mences with the new year, and have no other fear than that of being too 
late. When the ground is dry enough and fine enough, the sooner it is 
in the better ; it will yield more, and the liability to blight or to be 
beaten down will be less. 
' 4. In sowing, drill or dibble all, and have the rows not nigher than 
a foot between them, so as to admit of hoeing either by horse or hand, 
and hand-weeding at late periods. 
' 5. Hoe and hand-weed all corn ; let not a weed in flower be seen 
amongst it ; ever recollect that weeds occupy space and consume nutri- 
ment, displace corn, and rob the land. 
' 6. Never sow two crops of one genus in succession ; legumes or 
pulse may follow cereal grain, and cereal grain mSy follow legumes or 
pulse ; but never cereal after cereal, or ))ulse after pulse. Recollect 
rye-grass is a cereal plant, and unsuits the land for white straw corn. 
' 7. In apportioning the rate of seed per acre, do not lose sight of the 
bad consequences that must ensue if too much be sown. Bear in mind, 
that if so much be sown as to produce more plants at first than the 
space will afterwards allow to attain maturity, the latter growth of the 
whole will be impeded, and a diseased stage will commence as soon as 
the plants cover the ground, and continue till harvest. 
' 8. Manure should be applied only to green or cattle crops, and 
never to corn ; by giving it to the former, the earth derives the advantage 
of the extra dressing that the extra growth returns ; but when applied 
to corn, the earth is so much the more exhausted by the extra growth of 
straw, and frequently too the grain is thereby positively injured by being 
beaten down aud blighted in the straw, it always is made more hazard- 
ous by dressing. 
' 9. Were farmers to buy all their manures, they would find that the 
cost of maintaining their land in fair heart would be about 1/. per acre 
per annum. This quantity of dressing, every farm in fair productive 
cultivation would supply of itself, if a proper use and economy be 
made of its material to form manure, and a due care taken of it after- 
wards ; but from misapplication aud waste of the straw and fodder, and 
from negligence in the preservation of the dung and urine, at least half 
is usually lost, and the arable land of England may thus be said to be 
prejudiced at least lOi'. per acre. 
' 10. Were no other injury done to the crops by trees and hedges in 
small enclosures than that which arises from their mischievous shade 
and shelter, it would be equivalent to the ordinary rent of such fields ; 
but the farmers sustain a further loss in the additional time occupied 
in its tillage by the more frequent sto])pages and turns they cause, and 
by the encouragement to idleness in the men that their cover aflbrds. 
I believe arable fields with large hedges and hedge-row timber round 
them, whose dimensions arc under S acres, are seldom or ever worth a 
I'armer's cultivation. I see much poor open down-land in profitable 
