428 
Root  Crops. 
turnip-crop.  Again,  on  many  or  most  soils  you  cannot  get  a 
good  clover-crop  every  four  years.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent 
you  from  sowing  rye  after  barley,  and  mangold-wurzel  after  the 
rye.  Thus  on  a part  of  the  farm  the  rotation  might  stand  even 
thus : — 
1st  year.  Wheat,  mustard. 
2nd  „ Winter  beans,  turnips,  or  vetches. 
3rd  ,,  Barley. 
4th  „ Rye,  mangold. 
This  could  be  only  on  a part  of  the  farm,  but  we  certainly  may 
obtain  the  fifth  crop  pretty  generally;  nor,  as  I said,  will  the  beans 
injure  the  land  if  they  are  used  on  the  farm  ; on  the  contrary,  they 
will  improve  it,  and  the  consumption  of  the  several  crops  dove- 
tails together.  The  same  lambs,  wdiich  have  been  placed  with 
their  mothers  on  the  green  rye,  and  when  weaned  been  transferred 
to  the  vetches,  will  afterwards  consume  the  peas  and  the  beans  in 
their  troughs  on  the  turnips  and  swedes,  going  off  fat  to  Smith- 
field  at  about  a year  from  their  birth  as  mutton,  but  leaving  their 
fleeces  behind  them. 
Root  Crops. 
The  culture  of  swedes  differs  absolutely  in  the  north  and  the 
south  of  England.  In  the  north  they  may  be  sown  early  in  May; 
in  the  south  you  must  wait  another  month,  or  the  hot  w'eather  in 
August  will  give  them  the  mildew.  Hence  in  the  south  we  cannot 
grow  the  crops  of  this  root  which  are  grown  in  the  north.  Thus 
the  average  prize-crops  of  swedes  in  Lancashire  have  been  40  tons 
per  acre,  while  in  the  south  we  cannot  get  much  beyond  20  tons. 
If  we  want  to  grow  30  tons  of  roots  to  the  acre,  it  must  be  mangold 
wurzel;  the  culture  of  which  is  spreading,  and  would  spread  more 
but  for  its  impatience  of  frost,  and  the  farmer’s  dislike  for  the 
trouble  of  lifting,  carting,  and  storing  the  crop  in  the  autumn  ; in 
yielding  to  which  dislike  I yet  believe  they  are  wrong,  for  the 
orange  globe  mangold  will  grow  on  any  light  soil,  and  200  tons 
of  it  are  very  convenient  in  May.  In  setting  the  seed  I adopt 
Mr.  Huxtable’s  plan  so  far  that,  after  ploughing  in  dung,  we 
dibble  in  by  hand  a pinch  of  manure  under  the  seed.*  Swedes 
and  turnips,  however,  must  be  the  mainstay  ; and  with  them  not 
only  a different  season,  but  a different  mode  of  culture,  does  and 
must  prevail  in  the  north  and  the  south.  For  the  north,  the  plan 
of  setting  them  on  ridges  filled  with  manure  is  doubtless  the  best; 
but  it  is  too  slow  a process  for  us  in  the  south.  Sowing  in  J une, 
we  wait  for  a shower  to  moisten  the  ground  ; then,  with  a drill 
6 feet  wide  and  artificial  manure,  we  can  sow  four  rows  at  once, 
* See  an  account  of  the  practice  on  Mr.  Dickenson’s  farm  in  the  Report  on  Somer- 
setshire. 
