424 
Autumn  Cleaning  of  Wheat  Stubbles. 
with  rakes  to  gather  this  unravelled  network,  heap  it,  and  burn 
it.  But  if  the  ground  be  really  foul  you  have  not  done  yet. 
After  a few  days  you  see  fresh  blades  of  grass  shooting  up  over 
the  bare  ground,  and  find  the  enemy  still  left  behind,  so  that 
the  ploughing,  harrowing,  rolling,  raking,  and  burning  must 
begin  over  again — very  likely  be  repeated  a third  time.  All  this 
I have  done,  and  done  for  the  last  time.  Every  farmer  knows 
the  process  well.  Sometimes  it  interferes  with  the  barley  sowing 
— a critical  matter ; sometimes  the  barley  sowing  interferes  with 
it ; sometimes  the  weather  is  wet,  and  it  cannot  be  done  ; often 
there  is  a long  drought,  and  the  ground  is  rendered  so  dusty  that 
it  never  again  becomes  moist  enough  as  a seed-bed  for  turnips. 
All  these  well-known  disadvantages  are  in  attendance.  But  to 
prove  the  absolute  expense,  I will  extract  from  a standard  work, 
‘ Bayldon,  on  the  Art  of  valuing  Rents  and  Tillages’* — his 
account  of  the  bill  to  be  paid,  under  a change  of  tenancy,  for  this 
operation ; and  his  charge  is  estimated,  be  it  observed,  not  for  a 
field  casually  foul,  but  as  a regular  ingredient  of  the  cost  of  the 
entire  turnip  crop  of  a farm  every  year : — 
Turnips. 
First  ploughing  at  Christmas,  at  the  rate  of 
| of  an  acre  a day  ..... 
Second  ploughing  in  the  spring,  at  1 acre 
per  day ....... 
Four  times  of  harrowing  .... 
Rolling  once  ...... 
Gathering  and  burning  couch 
Third  ploughing  ..... 
Three  harro wings  ..... 
Rolling  ....... 
Two  liarrowings  . 
Couching  ....... 
Fourth  ploughing  . . . . . 
Harrowing  and  rolling  . . . . 
Couching,  &c.,  last  time  . 
Per  Acre. 
£.  s.  d. 
0 10  0 
0 8 0 
0 4 0 
0 1 0 
0 1 6 
0 7 0 
0 3 0 
0 1 0 
0 2 0 
0 1 0 
0 7 0 
0 3 0 
0 1 0 
£2  9 6 
On  a farm  of  200  acres  125/.  every  turnip  season.  Now  let  us 
hear  from  Mr.  Raynbird  what  is  done  by  Suffolk  farmers. 
Immediately  after  harvest  the  land  is  broken  up  with  the  skim- 
plough  (upwards  of  It  acre  may  be  thus  ploughed  in  a day)  ; 
heavy  harrows  are  used  to  pull  the  land  a little  to  pieces ; the 
Baylcton's  ‘ Tillages,’  6th  ed.,  ]J.  81. 
