Ploughing-in Green Crops. 
103 
VVhon land is partially cleaned in the autumn, it may be 
perfectly cleaned and manured by growing three crops of mustard, 
to be folded ; an acre will then keep an average of 20 sheep for 
15 weeks, which will give a result as follows : — 
WlllTK MUSTAUU. Dk. 
£ (f. d. 
Cost of autiunu cultivation . . 1 0 0 
Ditto as above for 3 crops . . 5 3 o 
Total cost of cultivation . . 6 3 0 
Leaving to meet rent and taxes a balance of £ 1 7 0 
I therefore conclude that plants when at their greatest green 
bulk are worth about 5s. a ton to plough-in as manure, and 
if palatable for stock, they will make about 14 lbs. of meat, 
and the excreta left will be worth, as manure, about 2s. Qd. 
per ton of food consumed. Mustard, or any plant of rapid 
growth which attains a smothering bulk, the seed of which costs 
little per acre, is best fitted for being ploughed-in as green 
manure, especially when the object is at the same time to clean 
the land. 
£ «. d 
'10 sheep kept 15 weeks at Ad.\ 5 o q 
a week each / 
Value of excreta left 2 10 0 
Gross return £7 10 0 
Cost of cultivation . . . . 6 3 0 
V. — Ploughing-in Green Crops. By G. MuKRAY. 
My experience of ploughing-in green crops includes much variety 
of soil and difference of climate, and of rainfall. 
In the north-western counties of Scotland, where dairy farming 
is extensively practised, the whole turnip-crop is got up by the 
middle of November and all drawn off and consumed by cattle in 
the yards. Here the farmers are very particular to have the 
turnip-tops regularly spread over the land and at once ploughed- 
in, the depth of furrow being never less than 5 inches : in this state 
it remains till the month of January, or later, when the land is 
generally sown with wheat, and heavy crops are grown. I have 
tried the same system in both the southern and midland counties 
of England, both after mangold and turnips ; but have always 
found that, unless artificial manures were used in considerable 
quantities, the crops were generally deficient. I cannot account 
for this marked difference, except it be that the greater rainfall of 
the north accelerating the solubility of the mineral elements which 
are contained in the leaves, presents them at once in that readily 
assimilative form, which is necessary in the case of spring-wheats 
that occupy the land for but a short period. (It is, however, 
generally supposed that green-manuring is most successful in a 
