Tour in England. 
39 
The four course, system generally prevails in 
Jiis country, which is this:—1° year, plow and 
manure highly, and plant with potatoes, beets, 
turnips, parsnips, or carrots. If these can be 
off the ground sufficiently early, the land is 
sowed to wheat for the 2° year. If not, the 
following spring, it is sowed to oats or barley, 
with some of the grasses, clovers, or Italian 
rye. 3° year, the grasses are fed off by hurd¬ 
ling sheep on the field, or if cut and fed to 
cattle, it is again manured, and the 4° year is 
again sowed to wheat or other grain. It is 
simply, roots, grain, grass, and grain; a severe 
system of cropping, requiring a strong soil, and 
constant manuring to sustain it. 
All cannot pursue this system without con¬ 
siderable modification. Sometimes instead of 
grain, peas and beans follow; vetches * also, 
winter and spring are sowed, and as soon as the 
former are fed off, rape f follows, which is 
again fed, and the field sown to wheat in the 
fail. Some adopt a five, six, or seven course 
system, when peas or beans with manure, will 
follow wheat, and these again followed by wheat 
or other grain; the lands sowed to grass; this 
mowed once, and then pastured a year or longer i 
as circumstances require. The curious reader; 
will find this subject treated very extensively in! 
English works on husbandry, but our limits; 
will not permit us to enlarge on this subject.; 
We must here add that owing to the great; 
difference in soil, climate, and prices of labor, j 
and the products of the soil, practices most! 
approved here, must be taken with great modi¬ 
fication if adopted in our own country. In the 
vicinity of our large cities, when manure is 
abundant, and products high, the four course 
system may be adopted with great advantage, 
especially when the owner of the land has a 
* Tares, (frequently called vetches,) are a species 
of pea. They are smaller than the common field 
pea, and either brown or black; the vines growing 
thicker, with smaller leaves, and never more than 
two feet high. Sheep are hurdled on them, or they 
are cut and fed green to cattle, horses and pigs. 
t Rape, is of the cabbage tribe, but resembles the 
leaves of the ruta baga, though smaller. The stalk 
runs up in a spindle and flowers, producing seed much 
like the turnip. It is cultivated in England, princi¬ 
pally to be fed to sheep, when nearly grown ; after 
which it will sprout and furnish another crop. On 
the Continent, it is cultivated mostly for its seed, 
which is ground and pressed like flax seed, furnishing 
a valuable oil. The residuum is ground, and in the 
form of rape dust, is used for manure. 
Trefoil and Sainfoin, are two kinds of small leaved 
clovers, which grow very thick, and are sometimes 
called French clover. 
The English Bean , frequently cultivated in gardens 
in the United States, a large coarse vegetable growing 
on large upright stalks two and a half feet high, is 
in England frequently cultivated as a crop for ani¬ 
mals, and yields fifteen to twenty-five bushels per 
acre. 
family to employ on it. Under this system, 
England has doubled her products within a 
few years, and it is the opinion of many of her 
scientific farmers, that it may yet be vastly in¬ 
creased ; and to effect it, every effort is made to 
advance her arts of husbandry to the highest 
standard. 
Some of the implements of husbandry in 
Berkshire are rude and cumbersome in the 
extreme, especially the two wheeled plow, 
which is also common to the whole south of 
England, and notwithstanding the repeated, 
minute and exact published experiments made 
by Mr. Pusey, late President of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, who resides in this county, 
of the superiority of the lighter swing plows, 
it is adhered to with a prejudice and pertinacity, 
really surprising. It is of great length and 
weight, with a heavy axeltree in front, thick 
and clumsy almost as that attached to a cart. 
At each end of this, rolls an unequal wheel, 
one of a larger diameter than the other, to run 
in the furrow to keep the axeltree level. To 
this cumbersome machine, we do not recollect 
to have ever seen less than three, and frequently 
four stout cart horses hitched on in line, one 
before the other, driven by a boy walking along 
by the side, with a man to hold the plow. Of 
course in this way, as the hind horse approaches 
the end of the furrow, he has to do all the work 
to his great fatigue. The plowing is admirably 
done, but at what a needless expense. 
We frequently conversed with intelligent 
gentlemen upon the subject of introducing 
lighter swing plows in the place of the bung¬ 
ling machine now in use among them, but they 
asked, good natu.redly, “ Wffiat shall we do 'l 
the men are accustomed to it and wont change.” 
We replied, educate them to the new mode, or 
get younger men if the plowmen are too ob¬ 
stinate to adopt it. “ Ah, all that may answer 
in America, but does not do in this part of 
England.” But it does do, we are glad to say, 
now, to a greater or less degree, and many 
spirited tanners have entered into Mr. Pusey's 
views we understand with success. Other im- 
lements, such as harrows, scarifiers, cultivators, 
rills, and threshing machines of a good kind, 
we found in quite common use. 
The farm work is done principally with 
horses of the large cart breed, which they put 
into work at three years old, and so keep them 
on till five or six, during which time they are 
more than earning their living, while improv¬ 
ing in value, when they are taken to London 
and other parts of the kingdom and sold, In 
this way many with whom we conversed said 
that they were more profitable stock than cattle; 
others disputed this, and preferred oxen, yfhich 
after working till past six years old, tlrey 
