"240 
The Past Agricultural Year. 
in this district ; but I was lucky with mine, and got a very good crop. They 
were planted from the 16th to the 26th of October, all dibbled. They did 
not appear out of the <;round until the first week in March. 
The effect of the late sprinp; and the drenching rains of the summer will 
be long remembered by the poor farmers. No I'allows were profitable : a great 
deal could not be made fit for planting ; and a great deal of land is going out 
of cultivation. With regard to land drainage, I consider a great deal of 
mischief has been done by cross-draining on lieavy clay-land. The proper way, 
in my opinion, is to let the water go where it has been accustomed to travel. 
A great deal of land has been thrown out of its old ridge and furrow by the 
use of steam cultivation ; and my opinion is, nothing will beat ploughing by 
horses, and keeping your land in ridge and furrow. Where the soil is the 
same as mine, the drains should be 3 feet deep at the furrows. Keep your 
master-drains well attended to, and there will be good results. It is the custom 
of many as soon as harvest is over to smash up the land, for the sake of 
getting rid of the annual weeds and being forward with the work ; but my 
experience tells me that a good flock of ewes will clear all the annual weeds 
away and prepare it for the plough, when land is free from couch and docks. 
A great many sheep have been rotted in this district the last two years. 
Henky Stilgoe, 
Berkshire. — CooJcham, Maidenhead. 
Wheat could not be sown late in the autumn of 1878, or early in the spring 
of 1879, on accoimt of the rain and frost ; and the prospect as to future prices 
appeared so unsatisfactory that few were tempted to risk late spring sowing, 
consequently the acreage of wheat was exceptionally small. The character of 
the season, so unsuitable for the maturing of this crop, produced its natural 
result, and we had on this small acreage a bad yield of inferior quality, 
much of it stacked so hastily as to unfit it for immediate threshing. Probably 
3j quarters to the acre will be found on some of the better lands, but much 
will yield considerably less than this. 
Barley and oats suffered less than the wheat ; but there are no full crops 
of either, and in many cases the crop is miserably deficient in yield and 
quality, and a large proportion was carried badly, the late season having 
induced too great haste, considering the large undergrowth of clover or rubbish. 
The settlement of many ricks and the steam arising from some told their tale. 
The hay-crop, both clover and meadow, although late, was good in bulk ; 
but the continuous rain, or rather the very short intervals without rain, ren- 
dered it almost impossible to get it together in good order. 
Root-crops need sunshine as well as rain, and suffered severely from the 
want of it. A few fair pieces of mangold-wurzel were seen, but the swedes 
were small and poor in the extreme ; their growth appeared to have been 
stunted, and they looked starved, even on the best lands in good condition. 
Rape was a good deal grown as a forlorn hope, but it was scanty and bad, and 
altogether the jirospect for sheep keep was far worse than I ever knew it. 
Potatoes were almost a failure, although there were a few exceptions where 
the coarser sorts had been grown on fresh and dry ground. 
The ground generally got very foul — not only the stubbles but even the 
fallows — as it has been impossible to clean land. 
The late harvest added to this difficulty. Harvest began about September 1st, 
and was not finished till nearly the middle of October. 
It must be understood that the remarks I have made as to yield of the corn- 
crops apply to the loams and lighter lands in this district. The state of the 
•clay-lands and low-lying Thames lands has been lamentable. I have heard 
