420 
Covenants. 
be  a full  one  and  artificial  food  be  employed.  Even  if  ploughed 
as  close  as  possible  up  to  the  fold,  the  plough  cannot  come 
in  until  a whole  length  is  cleared  from  end  to  end.  Meanwhile, 
the  loss  of  manure  has  been  in  great  part  incurred.  Every 
farmer  knows  the  pungent  stench  which  proceeds,  in  dry  weather, 
from  a fold  of  high-fed  sheep,  but  in  a few  days,  before  the 
land  can  be  ploughed,  this  disappears,  and  with  it  ammonia  has 
fled.  Sheep-manure  is,  in  fact,  peculiarly  liable  to  this  waste  ; 
for  the  solid  proceeds  from  sheep  contain  ammonia  as  well  as  the 
liquid,  and  both  ferment  immediately.  The  remedy  lies  in 
using  the  breast-plough  to  turn  over  a thin  paring  of  soil  by 
hand,  as  fast  as  the  hurdles  are  shifted.  It  costs,  perhaps,  5s. 
per  acre  ; but  this  is  no  extra  expense,  because  it  saves  the 
second  ploughing,  which  is  otherwise  needed  to  mix  the  manure 
equally  through  the  land  : an  essential  point,  I need  not  say,  for 
the  barley  crop.  I am  determined  in  future  to  breast-plough 
when  possible,  even  within  the  fold  ; for  the  health  of  the  sheep 
sometimes  suffers,  though  in  the  open  air,  from  this  intense  escape 
of  ammonia.  Professor  Way,  I may  mention,  has  illustrated  this 
evil ; for  he  has  ascertained  that  the  soil  of  my  own  farm  has  the 
hitherto  unknown  property,  that  when  mixed  with  fresh  urine  it 
hastens  the  fermentation  by  two  or  three  days,  which  clay  on  the 
other  hand  retards  or  prevents  altogether.  Many  other  soils,  no- 
doubt, have  the  same  property;  but  once  buried,  the  ammonia 
is  of  course  safe,  and  this  practice  of  following  the  fold  with  the 
breast-plough  is  found  to  answer  in  Oxfordshire  and  Gloucester- 
shire, where  it  is  used  regularly  by  many  farmers. 
On  the  management  of  manure  generally,  it  seems  to  me  not 
that  we  should  adhere  rigidly  to  our  present  system,  but  that  before 
this  system  undergoes  a radical  revolution,  the  various  transform- 
ations of  animal  manure  require  to  be  traced  by  chemistry,  with 
accurate  investigation  of  its  different  stages,  and  that  these  re- 
sults must  be  introduced  into  our  practice,  subject  to  the  health 
of  animals,  and  to  the  seasons  at  which  manure  is  required.  We 
are  thus  brought  to  actual  cultivation.  Before  we  consider,  how- 
ever, what  a farmer  should  grow,  the  question  arises,  what  he 
may  grow  according  to  the  covenants  of  his  lease. 
Covenants. 
It  is  generally  felt  that  some  change  is  required  in  the 
covenants  which  govern  the  rotation  of  crops ; but  though  they 
are  often  discussed,  I do  not  think  the  principle  which  ought  to 
govern  them  is  stated  quite  plainly.  The  agreements  generally 
lay  down  what  a tenant  should  grow.  Under  the  usual,  or  four- 
course,  rotation  he  is  bound  down  to  the  well-known  succession, — 
first,  wheat  ; second,  roots ; third,  barley ; fourth,  grasses,  that 
