238 
The Past Agricultural Year. 
go quite rotten. 1 liad a quantity covered up before the frost, which kept 
well until the second week in May, and finished ofl" the hoggs by shearing 
time. The wool was not, as a rule, of such good quality as usual, owing, ] 
suppose, to the great amount of cold and wet. Sheep, and especially lambs, 
did badly all summer; even when fed with cake they did not improve as they 
ought to have done, although they were all healthy and well, except that foot- 
rot was prevalent, and needed constant attention. The lambs scoured a 
good deal, but recovered under the influence of constant change of pasture, 
cake, and rock-salt to lick when thej' pleased. I am a great believer in salt 
— all animals are fond of it. Cattle did better than could have been expected, 
and I had no disease among mine, nor many mishaps. They calved better 
than they had for years, and I had no case of casting calf, which I have been 
sadly troubled with for years. They were fed and treated exactly the same 
as usual. 
Horses did well, but there was a great mortality among brood-mares at 
foaling time, and many colts were lost. There were great complaints of mares 
not standing to the horse, and mares were very late, as a rule, before coming 
in use. 
2. As to the crops of the farm. All my wheat, called " Red-straw White " * 
(I grow no other ; it can be sown autumn or spring, and is a mixed red-and- 
white variety of first-class qualitj'), stood the winter well, except on the 
wet places, and where the drains failed to act. What was sown after vetches, 
eaten with sheep last summer, seemed to be the best. Most of my winter or 
autumn-sown vetches entirely perished, and had to be re-sown in the spring ; 
and nearly all the roots left exposed rotted. On my farm some yellow buUock- 
turnips, late sown, had kept well, and were useful in the lambing time ; these 
were ex[X)sed to all the frost. The wheat sown late lay in the ground during 
the long frost, and afterwards came up well without any damage. I suppose 
it had not germinated when the frost set in. I have learnt by experience 
that in this district wheat cannot be sown too early. The last week in Sep- 
tember and the first two weeks in October are, in my opinion, the best times 
for sowing. It is of no use attempting here to do much in cleaning fallows 
in the autumn, the weather nearly always stopping it. The best course is 
to plough well and deef)ly, and watch your opportunity to clean as early as 
possible in the spring. Kidge up the turnip and mangold land, even if rough 
and dirty. Let it lie for a time, then harrow and split the rows, and the land 
can be cleaned with little trouble by picking the ridges and chain-harrowing, 
&c., repeating the oiieration as often as necessary. It was almost impossible 
to get root-crops really clean last summer, however long we continued at 
them, with scuffle, hoe, and hand. 
John Hill. 
August mh, 1879. 
Herefordshire. — Baysliam Court, Boss. 
1. As to the live-stock. Never was tlie benefit of thorough draining, or 
the advantage of having naturally dry soils, more apparent than during the 
jjast twelve months ; and particularly has this been the case for sheep. On 
wet lands many whole flocks have fallen victims to liver-rot, and severe losses 
have been sustained in flocks where that disease was previously unknown. 
The difficulty of retaining the health of our flocks upon dry soils has been 
great, and the mutton which has been made has been owing to a severe 
" See Report on Wheats, by John Morton, in the first volume of the ' Joumar 
(1840). 
