Variations of the Fotir-cow'se System. 299 
the extra keep of 130 sheep during the summer six months and 
of GO sheep during the winter four months. 
The steps recently taken by the United States as to the 
restrictions in the importation of breeding animals into that 
country will no doubt be keenly felt by breeders on this side. 
The stagnation of trade will, however, only be of a temporary 
character, and will subsequently benefit the home producer, and 
will in the end be beneficial to all classes. Home breeders will 
now turn their attention to supplying the home demand, the 
outcome of which is a gi’owing tendency to produce quality 
rather than quantity. Provide the working man with regular 
employment and a fair rate of wages, and he will be our best 
customer. The demand is for small joints, the iiroduce of young 
rather than of old animals. The competition from which the 
British farmer has been suffering is in the second-class and 
inferior qualities, which come into more direct conflict with 
imported meats. 
The English farmer is now adapting his practice to the ever- 
changing circumstances by combining the dairy with the business 
of the breeder and feeder. With the aid of cheap artificial 
fertilisers and feeding stuffs, and of a well-devised system of 
alternate husbandry, and by the growth of catch crops, he can 
win from the soil the maximum of produce at the minimum of 
cost. The light siliceous soils, or blowing sands, were never 
adapted to the growth of wheat, although they are capable under 
skilful management of producing a considerable quantity of 
stock food. They are poor in vegetable matter, and may be 
improved by the growth of mustard or other succulent plants 
ploughed in green ; as they improve in manurial condition, rye 
or winter oats may be grown and fed off with .sheep eating cake 
or corn, thus consolidating the land and enriching it at the same 
time. Bye, oats, and barley are the only cereals that can be 
grown with any prospect of success. When laid down the 
seeds should consist chiefly of Dutch clover, trefoil, and vetches 
or tares, which will obtain nitrogen from the air for the future 
use of plants. 
Boggy soils from which superfluous water lias been removed 
are the only soils on which lime can be used with advantage, 
unless it be to benefit a flitting tenant. Lime, by combining 
with chemical ingredients prevalent in this class of soils, renders 
them better suited to the growth of plants, though at the same 
time it may liberate a quantity of ammonia which escapes from 
the soil and is lost. Oats are generally the first crop taken on 
land of this character after breaking it up, and should be followed 
if possible by potatoes, a crop which generally succeeds well 
