On  the  Farming  of  Somerset. 
G 71 
gularly,  keep  their  rough  high  fields  for  summering-ground 
and  for  the  run  of  young  stock,  breaking  them  up  occasionally 
when  the  moss  gets  the  better  of  the  grass. 
In  order  to  give  a practical  answer  to  the  question  propounded 
by  the  Council,  the  common  modes  of  cultivating  corn  crops  in 
the  hills  must  be  explained.  The  reasons  for  the  improved  practice 
of  the  best  farmers  will  then  be  more  intelligible. 
For  the  substance  of  much  that  follows  on  the  ordinary  wheat 
and  turnip  husbandry  of  the  lulls  l am  indebted  to  the  Rev. 
Bennett  Michell,  Rector  of  Winsford,  who  larms  his  glebe,  with 
great  benefit  to  the  secluded  valley  in  which  his  lot  is  cast,  and 
not  without  profit  to  himself. 
After  a field  has  been  in  grass  for  some  years,  till  all  the 
valuable  grasses  are  extinct,  and  the  field  is  full  of  moss  and 
couch,  it  is  broken  up,  either  for  wheat  in  the  first  instance,  or — 
1,  oats,  “ to  clean  the  land,”  as  they  say ; then  2,  wheat ; 3,  turnips ; 
4,  oats,  or  wheat ; and  5,  grass. 
When  the  wheat  is  sown  at  once,  from  30  to  50  bushels  of 
lime,  without  any  other  manure,  are  spread.  The  land  is  once 
ploughed,  and  sometimes  hacked  over  by  manual  labour  with  a 
mattock,  at  a cost  of  65.  per  acre.  The  seed  is  sown  broadcast, 
and  harrowed  in.  The  turf,  or  spine,  is,  however,  so  tough  that 
the  seed-bed  is  very  shallow,  and  the  furrows  lie  so  hollow  that 
the  surface-earth  is  soon  washed  down  into  them  by  the  heavy 
rains  of  November  and  December,  so  that  the  roots  are  left  half 
naked,  and  the  plant  often  sadly  thinned  out  by  the  frost.  But 
a worse  evil  remains — the  couch-grass  is  greatly  encouraged  by 
the  land  having  been  broken,  but  not  cleaned,  in  the  autumn. 
It  is  not  the  common  couch  (Triticum  repens),  but  a kind  of  bent 
grass  (the  Agrostis  vulgaris),  a still  more  troublesome  weed.  This 
overpowers  the  wheat  in  its  early  stage,  and  fills  the  sheaves  in 
harvest-time  with  moist  grass.  The  harvests  in  the  hill  country 
are  always  late,  and  the  weather  generally  unsettled  ; therefore 
the  delay  of  a day  in  the  drying  of  the  sheaves  often  ruins  the 
crop.  The  labour  of  cleaning  the  land  in  the  spring  is  very  great, 
and  if  the  season  is  wet  the  toil  is  fruitless,  and  the  land  is  left  in 
the  worst  possible  state  for  turnips. 
Notwithstanding  these  obvious  evils,  wheat  is  still  cultivated  in 
this  manner  by  many  farmers;  but  “an  oat-crop  to  clean  the 
land”  is  more  common.  This  maxim,  like  most  local  sayings, 
has  its  foundation,  though  an  imperfect  one.  If  the  land  be 
broken  in  the  spring,  some  of  the  couch  may  be  taken  out,  and 
what  is  left  finds  the  comparative  dryness  of  the  summer  months 
less  favourable  to  the  spreading  of  its  roots  than  the  moisture 
of  w'inter  after  an  autumn-ploughing.  The  crop  of  ley  oats  is 
taken  without  any  manure.  After  harvest  the  land  is  scarified, 
2x2 
