164 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t Augugt 17> i 882 , 
consequence the land is called Clover-sick. If the Clover had 
been allowed to remain without feeding the sheep on them except 
slightly in September, the autumn leaf produced would have pro¬ 
tected the crowns of the plants from frost during the whole of 
the winter months, and have given an impulse to the early spring 
growth of the Clover crop. Again, however, advisable it may be to 
have the stubbles of the Wheat land seeded, it must be remembered 
that Italian Rye grass unless specially prepared by the seedsman 
often contains the seeds of couch and Black grass, entailing 
further difficulties in making the fallows in the spring before the 
seeding for root crops. As the fallow for roots is the foundation of 
the cleaning process, enabling the four-course to be carried out, it 
prevents autumn cultivation as well as green crops being seeded 
in the autumn, such as Trifolium, Vetches, and Rye. It prevents 
the land being autumn-fallowed, but also makes the land un¬ 
kindly for the seeding of root crops after the fodder crops are 
disposed of ; at the same time it often proves fatal to root crops of 
heavy weight, owing to the delay of the seed time. This is one of 
the objectionable points in the four-course system, because the 
fallowing for roots must not under any pretext be deferred or 
interfered with, particularly upon the mixed soils and farms 
where couch and Black grass prevail. Many valuable corn-pro¬ 
ducing soils are so liable to encourage these grasses, especially 
when they are highly farmed or are deficient in chalk, lime, and 
marl, for when these important substances are absent from the 
land it favours the growth of couch in an extraordinary degree. 
We must now look to the effect of a wet season upon the fallow 
break, such as those of 1853, I860, 1879, and others, causing more 
or less difficulty ; for in those we have named it was found totally 
impossible to clean the land during the period usually available 
for that purpose—namely, from the 1st of March to the 1st of June. 
The root seed must be sown, whether the land is as clean as 
it ought to be or not, between the 1st of June and the 1st of 
August, which is the only period for seeding which can be attended 
with success and furnish full crops of roots ; in fact, in the 
northern counties we must add the month of May to the seeding 
time. It is very clear that in case the land cannot be seeded 
within the above-named period the root crops must be abandoned 
and the land lie fallow until August and September, and the 
process of cleaning the land be continued during the autumn. In 
that case the land will be laid up for the winter, ready to receive 
the Lent corn seed without spring ploughing. Although this may 
not be unfavourable for the crops of Lent corn whether of Barley 
or Oats if early sown and properly manured, yet it has proved 
fatal to the growth of roots by which the sheep and cattle are to 
be maintained, and upon which so much value is placed and 
attributed by the advocates of the Norfolk system of cropping. 
It is worth consideration what can be done to assist in cleaning 
the land when the fallow in untoward seasons has been a failure 
to a certain extent in completing the preparation, because under 
such circumstances it is frequently found that when the roots are 
ready for the sheep, or fit for carrying away to store heaps for 
bullock-feeding, couch will still be found prevailing. When this 
happens it is imperative that these bunches of couch, however 
small, should be forked out previous to the sheep entering upon 
the folding and feeding, because there will be no other opportunity 
to attack the couch or black bent grasses, until the end of the 
four-course rotation has been carried out—a period of twenty- 
eight months. If we delay forking-out the grass from the root 
crop, and prefer to try and clean the land in the spring by horse 
labour and cultivation, we are met with the serious objection that 
it cannot be done thus without delaying the seed time, besides 
incurring expensive horse tillage, which together will prove fatal 
to the profit and benefit generally expected in the growth of 
Lent corn. 
We must also remember that on the mixed soils and vale land 
after the root crops have been fed off by sheep eating cake, corn, 
and hay, that the bulk of straw in the Lent corn will be great, 
especially that of Barley, which frequently becomes laid, injuring 
the grain, and likewise destroying the young Clover plants. This 
is not, however, so much the case when spring Wheat or Oats are 
sown after the root crops fed off ; still, wherever the loss of the 
Clover plant occurs the mischief is not confined to the loss of the 
Clover intended for hay, but is extended into the next course. 
It is sure to injure the prospect for a Wheat crop, because in the 
Norfolk system the Clover roots have always been considered the 
basis of a good Wheat crop, and so it will prove upon any light 
soil when neither of the spring-sown crops grown are stout 
enough to injure the Clover plant. Upon the home farm where 
the Clover hay crop may be sold off the land, and also upon 
farms where the lease allows of its sale, the loss of the crop is 
irreparable, for the substitutes under the Norfolk system are not 
attended with advantage unless the growth of Beans or Peas are 
covenanted for ; the only crop to be taken is a green fodder one 
for feeding sheep, such as Vetches or Trifolium, or Mustard, to 
be either fed off or ploughed in as manure. The management of 
the Clover crop and the mixtures of seed are of the highest im¬ 
portance, for broad or red Clover cannot be taken with any safety 
oftener than once in eight years, therefore the alternation must 
be carefully considered. We know no mixtures better than red 
Clover and Giant Sainfoin alternated with white Dutch and 
Alsike Clover, both to be grown without Rye grass, as this pre¬ 
judices the crop of all cereals, and in lieu of it we introduce 
Giant Sainfoin in red Clover to facilitate the making of the hay 
in the absence of Rye grass, and it is frequently advisable to 
grow it also in admixture with the white Dutch for the same 
purpose. 
The next point we have to consider is the disposal of the Clover 
crop. It is a common practice to cut the first growth for hay 
and feed sheep on the latter-math ; but our experience is that 
the second growth should be cut for hay or for seed, because of 
the value of the Clover roots as manure for the Wheat, for the 
weight of roots is much larger after two cuttings than with 
one cutting and one folding with sheep. We have sometimes 
known where the Clover lain has proved foul with couch that 
attempts have been made to clean the land by what is called a 
bastard fallow after the first cutting of Clover has been taken for 
hay. This in our opinion is often fatal to the Wheat crop, for 
it not only destroys the Clover roots so valuable in the ordinary 
once ploughing for Wheat, but the attempt at fallowing proves 
injurious to the Wheat plant, as it becomes root-false, and breaks 
down previous to harvest, and seriously reduces the yield of grain. 
We shall now refer to a very important point for the home farmer 
to consider in connection with the four-course rotation upon the 
mixed soils or vale farms, because he is not obliged to grow 
Turnips to any such extent as one-fourth of the land, unless the 
stock of sheep and cattle fed on the pastures and parklands 
during the summer months render it necessary to ensure a large 
provision for them in the winter months. We do not object to 
the fallowing relating to the cultivation for Turnips, as that pre¬ 
pares the land for future crops, but it frequently occurs that in 
feeding and folding the Tum ps by sheep in wet seasons the land 
is trodden and sodden, by which it becomes unkind both for the 
corn and Clover plants to follow. We therefore state that not 
only has the crop of Turnips, to which we have never seen an 
exception, when passed through the cutter and ploughed in proved 
most beneficial to the following future crops, but even better than 
when the roots have been fed off by sheep eating cake and hay 
in addition. A few days ago we noticed when pa-sing over a 
farm that one-half of a field of Turnips had been fed off, the 
stock eating cake, on the other half the roots had been carefully 
reduced and ploughed in ; the latter we estimated at two quarters 
