090 
On  the  Farming  of  Somerset. 
several  patches  ; but  he  had  the  candour  to  show  the  places, 
bearing  about  one-filth  of  the  average  of  the  rest  of  the  crop, 
with  great  glee  acknowledging  his  own  conversion. 
The  value  of  lime  may  be  curiously  illustrated  by  another  field 
which  Mr.  Matthews,  the  tenant,  had  breast-ploughed  and  limed 
with  120  bushels  per  acre.  A crop  of  white  turnips  had  been 
taken  and  fed  off.  Next  season  a crop  of  Swedes  (called  locally 
“ copper  tops”)  was  drilled  on  the  flat  at  20  inches  apart.  The 
object  of  these  two  root-crops  is  to  eradicate  the  native  grasses. 
A crop  of  oats  will  succeed,  followed  by  seeds,  and  a sweet  herb- 
age will  last  for  several  years.  Just  below  this  field  the  water 
was  breaking  out  from  the  ditch  and  gateway.  It  was  merely 
finding  its  own  way  over  the  sward,  but  it  made  half  an  acre  look 
like  a water-meadow,  while  the  common  surface-water  breeds 
coarse  sedge  and  rushes.  This  shows  clearly  that  a well-limed 
field  of  turnips  on  the  top  of  a hill  has  more  work  to  do  for  the 
farmer  besides  keeping  his  sheep,  inasmuch  as  its  subsoil-water 
may  be  conveyed  over  the  old  pasture  below,  and  turn  it  into 
meadow. 
Mr.  Smith  has  invested  his  own  capital  in  a large  farm,  the 
management  of  which  he  shall  explain  in  his  own  words  : — 
“The  system  adopted  upon  my  own  farm  is, — first  to  pare  the  land  by 
manual  or  horse-labour,  according  to  circumstances ; then  to  burn  the 
furrow  as  it  lies  upon  the  surface,  thereby  not  only  charring  the  sod,  but 
the  land  upon  which  it  lies,  as  also  destroying  all  insects,  seeds,  &c. ; the 
ashes  are  then  ploughed  in  as  thinly  as  possible,  and  from  2^  to  3 tons  of 
lime  per  acre  spread  upon  the  surface  to  decompose  the  vegetable  matter; 
after  which  the  whole  is  mixed  by  the  harrow,  &c.,  and  the  seed  drilled  in 
rows  upon  the  fiat,  twenty-one  inches  apart,  the  cost  per  acre  being  as 
under : — 
£. 
s. 
d. 
Paring,  if  by  manual  labour  . 
. 0 
12 
0 
Burning  upon  the  land  . 
. 0 
1 
6 
Ploughing,  harrowing,  &c. 
. 0 
8 
G 
Lime  and  labour  . . . . 
2 
10 
0 
£3 
12 
0 
Should  the  furrows  have  to  be  thrown  in  heaps  for  burning,  and  the 
ashes  spread,  the  cost  will  be  3s.  6 cl.  per  acre  more. 
“ The  wmight  of  Swedish  turnips  upon  these  lands  averaged  25  tons  per 
acre,  thus  being  grown  (including  rent,  rates  we  have  none)  at  3s.  3d.  per 
ton,  and  the  land  prepared  for  after-crops. 
“On  the  peaty  soils  requiring  to  be  subsoiled,  I find  it  best  to  prepare 
the  land  in  the  autumn  for  the  succeeding  spring,  by  paring  and  burning 
upon  the  land,  half-plough  the  land  into  ridges,  and  subsoil  between  them, 
the  subsoil-plough  following  two  teams  every  other  furrow.  By  this  plan 
the  ashes  are  preserved  for  early  use  and  the  land  left  perfectly  dry  and 
exposed  to  the  winter  frosts.  This  is  succeeded  by  a cross-ploughing  in 
the  spring,  and  the  whole  is  complete  for  the  harrowings,  sowing,  &c.,  at 
an  early  period.  The  cost  will  stand  thus  : — 
