■2U 
The Past Agricultural Year. 
Sussex. — Chichester. 
1. Live-stock: — Homed stock, where fed on hay, thrived well, even with a 
smaller amount of roots than usual, the hay having been harvested in prime 
condition in 1878 ; but those fed on straw, with the usual amount of roots, did 
Imdly, straw of that year's growth being very inferior. We were very free 
from disease amongst stock. Sheep did well, with very few losses ; but the 
drop of lambs varied a great deal. The forward ewes, lambing about Christmas 
and January, did very well, with a capital fall of lambs for early fatting. The 
llock which lambed from middle of February to middle of March did very 
badly, losing a great many ewes, with a very short fall of lambs. I breed 
from my ewe-tegs at twelve months old. They lambed from middle of March 
till middle of April, and did well. The forward ewes were Hampshire Downs, 
in-lamb when I bought them (end of August). I allowed them as many roots 
as they liked to eat, with about 1 lb. of hay apiece daily. The flock (South- 
downs) were allowed very few swedes, as much cut chaff (half hay and half 
oat-straw) as they would eat, and about i lb. of best linseed-cake daily from 
the beginning of January. The ewe-tegs had as many white turnips as they 
would eat, 1 lb. of hay per day, but no cake before they lambed. The forward 
ewes were kept on a medium soil, light brick-earth, and lambed there. The 
tlock we kept on a strong brick-earth, and lambed there. The ewe-tegs we 
kept in the same field as the flock until they began lambing, then they were 
sent to the homestead where the forward ewes were keeping, and lambed in 
the same fold. The ewes and lambs did not do well during the summer, 
suffering a good deal from foot-rot and the great amount of moisture in their 
food ; but they kept healthy till they were weaned. 
2. Crops. — I do not generally begin wheat sowing before October 20th. "We 
had a very wet time to i)ut it in, and some land which would have been sown 
with wheat had to stand over for spring-sowing. After the wheat was sown 
it lay in the ground longer than I ever knew it before ; and when it did come 
up it was with a very weak shoot, which could not make way against the 
hard weather we had. Wheat after rape or fallow-croi) answered best, then 
;;fter fed lea, and the red-clover lea was worse than any other. In the same 
titdd you could see to a foot where the red clover grew. !Much of it was a 
I'ailure altogether, and had to be ploughed up or re-sown. Eed wheats appear 
to have stood this trying time much better than white, promising a large 
return. In my neighbourhood we have a wheat peculiar to this district, 
called "Old-fashioned Red and White-strawed," being a mixed wheat ; the red 
liaving white chaff, similar to Red Nursery, with a bolder berry. This sort 
was one of the worst this year, after Talavera and Fluff, which, however, are 
very little sown here. I have sown a considerable quantity of Biddle's 
Imperial* for several years; it answers well on our fed leas, having a stifl' 
straw. Being very heavy in the bushel, millers are very fond of it after 
buying it a few times. It was introduced here a few years since by 
]■'. Padwick, Esq., of Thomey, who had the seed from Herefordshire, whence we 
j.et a change of seed now. It grows very much more white after being grown 
liere a few years. I did not sow any wheat in tlie spring, but I hear it is 
better than the autumn-sown. Owing to the wet weather, barley and oats 
were not sown so soon as usual by a month, not beginning before the 8th of 
^larch ; but it was a verj' good seed-bed for our land, the hard frosts having 
pulverised the land wonderfully. They came up, and promised well. 
As to cleaning the land and preparing for the root-crops, it was quite im- 
possible if not done in the autumn of the previous year. I was fortunate in 
iiaving my worst pieces done at that time, for any that was not attended to 
* See p. 109 in the ' Journal,' vol. x, s. s. 
