104 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 29, 1880. 
POULTRYPIGEON, AND BEE CHRONICLE. 
THE ADVANTAGES OF AUTUMN CULTIVATION. 
This is one of the most important subjects connected with 
agriculture. It is, however, generally identified with cleaning 
the stubbles after crops of corn and pulse. By attending to this 
matter the home farmer will be enabled to cultivate the land 
under his management to the best advantage, and with a quicker 
succession and rotation of crops. Although it is called autumn 
cultivation, yet it is practically the commencement of the agri¬ 
cultural year, for it is after the harvest has been gathered-in that 
autumn cultivation really commences. The theory on which 
this early tillage is advocated is that couch grass and other root 
weeds as soon as the crops are cleared after harvest are really at 
the weakest, not having extended their roots much below the 
surface. As soon, however, as the crops are removed, if the 
couch, &c., is allowed to remain undisturbed it spreads rapidly 
both above and beneath the surface of the ground. In case the 
cultivation is deferred altogether until the winter or spring it 
gives the farmer infinitely more labour at the busy period ; some¬ 
times the fallowing process may be prevented entirely, or the 
season for sowing root seeds or early Lent corn will be so far 
delayed as to greatly diminish the prospect of good crops. The 
advantage of this early preparation is enhanced by the certain 
benefit of but little work being required in the spring ; in fact, 
the ground not being deprived of its moisture, all seeds sown at 
that season will be sure to vegetate immediately. 
There is certainly no more important operation in agriculture 
than eradicating couch and weeds, for we cannot expect to grow 
full crops on foul land. Weeds are the most insidious enemies of 
farming, for it is common amongst farmers in speaking of couch 
grass to say there is so little in such a field that it will not injure 
our next crop, thus forgetting that whilst the corn may be grow¬ 
ing the grass and weeds are daily increasing. The only way to 
successfully overcome the weeds is to attack them in their 
infancy, and this brings us to the consideration of the first and 
best means of commencing operations against them. Let us, for 
example, take a Wheat stubble which is intended to be sown with 
the seeds of Rye, Vetches, Trifolium, or any green crops for food 
of stock in the spring. We recommend the home farmer to select 
for this purpose the cleanest stubble on the farm, so that no 
grass, &c., may interfere with the growth of the fodder crops, but 
that when the green crops are removed the land may be suffi¬ 
ciently clean to be ploughed and sown for root crops immediately, 
as there is then no time to clean the land without losing the 
proper seeding or planting time. Now, in order that the land 
may really be clean enough to receive the seed of fodder crops 
upon nearly all the mixed soils, and especially after wheat sown 
on a clover lea, there will usually be more or less of bunches of 
couch or onion grass, either of which should be forked out. This 
operation, which is usually done by women, can be carried out at 
a cost varying from 3s. to 65. per acre, after which the weeds 
should be removed to a heap ; the land will then only require to 
be once ploughed before seeding to green crops, and no time will 
be lost before sowing the seed. 
The next thing to be considered is the treatment of stubble land 
intended for Lent corn or pulse in the following spring. We must, 
however, take it up in two divisions—the treatment for light and 
dry soils first, and secondly for heavy and strong soils. In the 
former we find couch and other weeds the roots of which dive 
into the soil a considerable depth ; in this case, whether we culti¬ 
vate by horse labour or by steam power, we must till deeply and 
not to leave the grass under. In fact in all autumn culture of 
this kind, and with this object in view, steam power is best, simply 
because it can be done in the least time, and we cannot prolong the 
time, as we can only reduce the labour into the shortest possible 
period by steam culture. The first operation, then, is to cultivate 
with the points as deep as the land has been ploughed on former 
occasions, and as soon as the steam cultivator has been over the 
land one way we advise taking it over the second time across the 
first work. The land will then lie rough, or at least the clods and 
bunches of grasses will lie sufficiently loose and on the top to be 
treated by horse or ox labour with Howard’s patent self-lifting 
drag. The ring roller may then be used, but not until the couch 
is entirely brought to the surface, and to this point the attention 
of the home farmer must be carefully directed. Then should 
succeed as many draggings and rollings as will enable the chain 
harrow to operate in collecting the grass and root weeds into heaps 
or rows, and in case the weather should be dry enough burn th e 
weeds in small heaps, and spread the ashes. However, should the 
weather be showery and uncertain there must be no delay, because 
the couch must then be carted away to heap or otherwise dis¬ 
posed of, in order that the drag may be employed again, so that 
all the couch remaining should be combed out and disposed of to 
render the land clean enough to be winter-ploughed after the 
Wheat seed time is over. It must, however, be remembered that in 
extremely foul land it may be requisite after the first crop of couch 
has been removed to steam cultivate as at first, and again follow 
by dragging, rolling, &c., and the couch being again disposed of 
either by burning or carting to heap. We like the carting away 
to heap, because it is a rule we recommend in agriculture never 
to burn anything which will decay unless we actually need 
ashes fcr drilling purposes. Couch when drawn off to heap or 
laid out on pasture land for manure never requires so much labour 
besides the carting, as it does for the burning ; therefore time as 
well as labour is saved, besides being comparatively independent 
of the weather during the work of removal. 
The above remarks apply chiefly to dry chalk, gravel, or sand, 
and the varieties of friable loams ; but we must now refer to 
tillage of heavy loams or clay soils. In doing so we will again 
take a Wheat stubble, and as upon the generality of such land 
the white-rooted couch does not prevail; but we find chiefly the 
fine running grass, which spreads over the surface only, and is 
commonly called water grass, and where this predominates the 
deep moving of the land as a first operation is not necessary ; 
therefore Coleman’s scarifier with shares on—if worked about 
2 inches in depth, or as shallow as will move the surface of the 
land at a regular depth—will be sufficient to cut the small fibrous 
roots of the running grass, after which it may be dragged with 
Howard’s implement, before referred to. The ordinary iron 
harrows will also loosen the grass from the land, and it may then 
be treated and collected with the chain harrow, so that the grass 
and other weeds may be either burned or carted away as may be 
most convenient, after which it will require careful examination 
to observe whether any grass is left, in which case the former 
work must be repeated. There will still be another matter to be 
noticed, for in the case of small ridges and deep land furrows 
some grass will be found in them ; we then advise the use of the 
double mould plough with a new cutting share, which will reach 
all the grass in the furrows, and will be lifted out by the double 
turn furrows on either side, and then by using the harrows length¬ 
ways with the furrows the grass will be brought to the surface 
free from the earth, and may be collected by the use of the chain 
harrow. 
(To be continued.) 
