88 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
CURE FOR THE SCOWERS IN YOUNG ANIMALS. 
Give the animal a pint of shelled wheat two or three times a clay. If a 
sucking colt, give to the dam at the same rate. 
F/etningsbxugh. Ky- June 1. G. W. FORDMAN. 
EXTRACTS. 
MANAGEMENT OF A CLAY FARM. 
It is contended, in Britain as well as in America, that stiff clay soils, at 
lea3t, require the process of summer tallowing, every few years, to clean 
and pulverize them, and to fit them for the growth of grain. This re¬ 
quires the loss of one crop, and the expense of two or three ploughings. 
It will be seen from the following, that summer fallows have been dis¬ 
pensed with upon clays, and cross ploughings superseded; and that the 
profits of the farm have been thereby doubled. The practice of Mr. 
Greg, as stated below, cannot fail of affording useful hints to the mana 
gers of clay farms; and his mode of forming ridges, to keep his lands 
dry, we particularly recommend to the notice of farmers, who are troub¬ 
led with a redundancy of water, in the spring, in consequence of haying a 
flat surface, or a retentive soil or subsoil. For the grubber, or scarifier, 
we can confidently recommend Concklin’s Press Harrow, or the grub¬ 
ber or scarifier may readily be constructed here. 
GREG’S SYSTEM. 
The farm of Coles, near Buntingford, in Hertfordshire, consists of 240 
acres of arable land, which isdescr.bed as “ a very tenacious clay, in some 
laces mixed up with calcareous earth, which causes it to bind at top after 
eavy rain;” and was formerly worked nearly under a three-course system 
of summer fallow, while corn, and pulse, orclover. Turnips were seldom 
sown, as the difficulty of feeding or carting them off was (bund to be in¬ 
jurious to the succeeding crop; and, consequently, only a small flock of 
80 ewes or 140 wethers was kept, which was constantly folded during the 
summer. Upon this, and the observations regarding the disadvantages 
attending the similar plans of his neighbors, it is unnecessary that we 
should here offer any remark, for we know that they have been, in many 
instances impioved, and our more immediate object is tostate the system 
afterwards adopted by Mr. Greg, and since followed by his nephew, during 
upw ards of twenty years. 
Having, as he tells us, “ established in his mind, as a general principle, 
that f. rtility was to be derived from pulverizing the soil, clearing it from 
water, and keeping it clean, he proceeded to inquire how those objects were 
to be obtained at the least expense; and he found that the best method to 
promote them was to reveise the whole system of the former cultivation.” 
Accordingly, instead of ploughing four or five times only in summer and 
spr ng, and fallowing every third year, he formed the determination “ to 
plough only once for a crop; to plough only in winter; never to fallow the 
land in summer; to practise the row-culture, and to use the horse-hoe.” 
The mode in which he carried his plan into execution was as follows. 
He divided the farm as nearly as possible into six equal parts, which are 
cultivated in a six-course shift consisting of turnips; barley or oats, clo¬ 
ver, standing two years; peas or beans, upon the ley; and lastly, wheat. 
The ground is marked out by a drill into ridges of five and a half feet in 
width, intersected by furrows of ten inches wide; thus leaving only fifty- 
six inches for each land, which is worked by a Suffolk swing plough, form¬ 
ed upon a construction to ciit a perfect trench of seven inches deep, and 
requiring four bouts to complete the ridge, which is made sufficiently con¬ 
vex to describe an inclined plane of three inches from the crown to each 
furrow. Thus water is prevented from remaining upon the land intend¬ 
ed to be cropped, by being drawn into the ten-inch furrow, which is car¬ 
ried two inches deeper; the horses never tread but in a furrow; and by 
the soundness of this ploughing Mr. G. states, that “ when effected in the 
autumn or befoie Christmas, a perfect friability is obtained in the tilth by 
the influence of the frost during the winter, and the surface water may be 
as effectually got rid of as by under-draining. 
As soon as the harvest is completed, the wheat-stubbles are haulmed, 
and the lands are marked out and ploughed one bout: dung is then plough¬ 
ed in to the amount of ten loads per acre, and three bushels of winter tares 
with a bushel and a half of winter barley are sown, to precede turnips, to 
the extent of about half the ground intended for that crop, which, in com¬ 
mon seasons, it does not impede, as the tares are cut upon a moist furrow 
for the turnip sowing. 
The tare sowing being finished, the bean and pea stubbles are prepared 
for wheat; which is a difficult operation on heavy land, when the object 
is to get the seed early into the ground. The labor which they require 
from the plough, roll, and harrow, was so great as to induce Mr. Greg to 
use a powerful grubber, or scarifier, of a form which covers an entire 
land; and it performed so well that he has since continued to use it in¬ 
stead of the plough, as he found that he could thus sow forty acres of 
wheat in a very few days, regardless of weather, and at a sixth part of the 
expense. 
Having sown the wheat, the remainder of the land intended for turnips 
is ploughed and dunged. The ploughing is also performed for peas and 
beans; and it is desirable that these operations should be completed before 
Christmas. As soon as the season turns, the land which was ley, and in¬ 
tended for beans and peas, is scarified; and when the growing weather 
commences, the beans are drilled at fifteen inches for the convenience of 
horse-hoeing. The peas are next drilled; but as these, by falling over, 
preclude the possibility, of hoeing them more than twice, they are sown at 
I intervals of twelve inches. 
I As the ground is cleared of turnips, it is ploughed into lands. In the 
[spring, the barley is drilled in rows of eightinches—not leaving any space 
for furrow—and the clover and rye-grass is sown up, and then across the 
[lands. 
j As soon in May as the weather permits, and the sun is sufficiently pow- 
jerful to kill weeds, the scarcifier is set to work, succeeded by a strong 
j harrow; and having by these operations obtained cleanliness, the first fa¬ 
vorable weather is made use of to sow Swedish turnips; or, should they 
fail, they are succeeded by white turnips, and in the event of a further 
miscarriage, coleseed is sown. With these, and the assistance of about 
ten loads of clover, and ten weeks’ run on pasture in bad weather, 500 
sheep are now kept on the farm, but lie enclosed at night in a spacious 
and well-littered yard. The fodder produced by straw and clover hay sup¬ 
ports from forty to fifty head of cattle, and nine working horses are kept, 
which are soiled during the entire summer: thus so large a quantity of 
dung is made that no manure is purchased. 
i In this manner 200 acres are ploughed between harvest and Christmas, 
j besides the cartage of dung and other odd jobs on the farm; but this is 
:easily performed with the aid'of the grubber, and the land being entirely 
ploughed in the winter, there is only the sowing of Lent corn to execute 
in the spring: the horses are therefore put upon green food, by which a 
considerable saving is made in the consumption of corn. Many other de- 
j tails of management are given in Mr. Greg’s pamphlet, which is brief and 
[well worthy of attention, but which we refrain from enumerating, as we 
only meant to call attention to the extraordinary statement which it con¬ 
tains of such asystem of culture havin'/ been so successfully pursued up¬ 
on land of that nature, as to yield an. average, during six years, of the fol¬ 
lowing crops, namely: 
Per acre. 
Wheat. 25 bushels. 
Barley,. 40 “ 
Beans. 35 “ 
Peas. 30 “ 
Clover, twice cut,. 2 tons. 
thus, after the deduction of rent and the interest of 2,500/. capital, pre¬ 
senting, upon an average of six years, a profit of 671/. 3«., or 2/. 15s. lid. 
per acre, and a result in favor ol his mode of cultivation of no less than an 
annual difference amounting to 638/. 13s. 
Of the accuracy of the minute account thus furnished by Mr. Greg, we 
have no reason to doubt, though we confess ourselves somewhat sceptical 
regarding the justice of the conclusions which he has drawn respecting 
the superiority of his own plans over those of his neighbors; for every man, 
however high his honor and impartiality, is yet unconsciously biassed in 
favor of any pursuit of his own, and no farmer could live upon the profit 
which he has assumed as that of cultivation under the old plan. On a 
subject of such vital importance to agriculture as that of the fallow system, 
we indeed deemed it prudent to apply to the present Mr. Greg for further 
information, which he readily afforded; and, from recent personal commu¬ 
nication and correspondence, we are assured by him. “that his uncle’s 
system is still pursued upon his farm with the best effect; as is evinced by 
the clean condition of the land, the heavy crops produced, and the quanti¬ 
ties of stock maintained. The only alteration of importance made in his 
mode of cultivation subsequent to the publication of his pamphlet, was the 
substitution of a seven years’ course, in place of that of six years, by which 
he obtained two crops of wheat—one on the clover ley, and another after 
the beans and peas. The annual course of cropping in the several years 
now, therefore, stands thus— 
J. Turnips. 5. Wheat. 
2 . Barley. 6. Beans and Peas. 
3. and 4. Clover. 7. Wheat. 
j No material alteration has been made in the implements; nor was any 
j fallow permitted so long as the late Mr. Greg’s health allowed his super¬ 
intendence of the farm; but the bailiff now occasionally fallows a field of 
\the heaviest land: this, however, is only resorted to when the land sown 
w ith turnips has not been prepared in time for the barley crop, and only 
averages about 16 acres a year out of 250.”— Er. Hush. 
ENTOMOLOGY, 
Is the scienoe which treats of insects—of their history, their habits and 
appearance. JNo study is more interesting to the farmer than that of 
‘ the insects which prey upon and destroy his crops. When acquainted 
