is sometimes drilled on the ridge; this is done with a manure drill, the coulters of which are guided by rollers which at the same time roll the ridges. The seed is not sown by this drill, for as the manure coulters make a very deep furrow it would be unwise to deposit the seed immediately. But by using a light roll, this furrow is filled up, and the ridge levelled for the seeddrill to deposit the seed at a regular depth. Guano is sometimes sown by hand, in immediate contact with the manure; this is of course done before the ridges are split.

Before hand-hoeing the turnips or beet, they are horse-hoed, a man and horse getting over about 3 acres in a day; between the first and second hand-hoeing the horse-hoeing is repeated, and after this as often as may be required.

The spaces in the mangel or turnips, which have missed plant, are filled up with transplanted swedes. Swedes are also transplanted after tares that have been mown for horses, and are found to produce good crops.

The system of drilling on the flat is generally adopted on nearly all the lightest land of this district, both for swedes and common turnips: when farm-yard manure is applied, it is carted on and spread just before the ploughs, so that as short a time as possible elapses between the spreading of the manure and the covering of it in by the plough-it being so arranged that the men spreading, followed by women and boys to divide the dung, are just able to keep the ploughs in work. Some plough the manure in fleet, and then plough deep before sowing. Most farmers drill directly after the plough, and some, in order to ensure a good crop, drill artificial manure with the seed, such as rape-cake, greaves, bones, superphosphate of lime, &c.

On a few farms peat-ashes are used. I have before said that there is a narrow tract of peat soil on the banks of the river Lark, and this is prepared by being burnt in large heaps, at a cost of about 51. per thousand bushels for digging and burning; these ashes have been used rather extensively on a few light-land farms for turnips; they have likewise been found to be productive of much benefit when applied as top-dressing on sainfoin and clover layers. The gentleman who first introduced the use of peat-ashes has also another practice worthy of mention, which is, the using two drills, one to sow the artificial manure, and the other to drill the seed; this is preferred, the seed being deposited regularly, and at a uniform depth, which is seldom the case when the seed follows immediately after the large manure coulter. This is a desideratum which is still wanting in drills made for the purpose of drilling manure with the seed. The time for drilling swedes is May and June; white turnips, June: the average distance between the drills 18 inches. Some farmers have adopted the practice of horse

hoeing their flat drilled turnips, and it is a practice very likely to increase; as, in addition to the advantages derived from the pulverization of the soil and the destruction of weeds, the process of hand-hoeing is rendered easier and more effective. Garrett's lever-hoe is used by many farmers on the light land of East Suffolk. One gentleman, who farms 2200 acres, hoes turnips both between and across the drills, cutting out the plants at regular intervals; these are singled by hand and then hand-hoed. In the first handhoeing, or singling of the turnips, the hoer is often followed by a girl or boy to single the turnips left by the hoe. In about a fortnight the turnips are hoed a second time, the cost of both operations being about 6s. an acre.

Carrots are either sown broadcast or drilled. The land being ploughed deep or subsoiled, farm-yard manure is seldom used, as it makes the roots fangy. The management of the carrot-crop is frequently by contract labour; the contractor finding seed, sowing, hoeing, taking up and storing the crop : for this he takes half the crop, or is paid 2d. per bushel. About 5 lbs. of seed is sown to the acre in April, the seeds being first mixed with dry sand to ensure its delivery. As soon as the young plants can be distin

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The

guished, the weeds are hoed with a small hoe about 3 inches wide, having a handle little more than a foot in length; this is a very slow and tedious operation. In a short time the carrots are set out at about 6 or 7 inches apart with a wider tool, and again hoed about the latter end of July. The cost of hoeing varies from 20s. to 30s. per acre. carrots are taken up in October or November; men and women take them up with forks, or with a spoonshaped tool; children cut the tops off as they are taken up. They are then laid in long heaps, either in the field, or carted to some convenient spot; these heaps are about 3 feet wide at bottom, and 2 feet high. They are first covered with straw, and then with earth, except the ridge, which is covered with straw only. In the spring the stored carrots require looking over. The tops are folded with sheep. Drilling carrots is practised by some, and has several advantages over broadcast, as, first, it lessens the cost of hoeing; secondly, the carrots are singled at wider intervals, consequently they produce a heavier crop, as the roots are larger and the carrots being at greater distances apart the taking up is not so expensive. Before drilling the seed is mixed with sand, bran, or other substances to divide the seed. One farmer uses powdered wood-charcoal; the latter produces a quick vegetation of the seed, and also prevents it from

Carrots.

Section of Heap.

adhering in the drill; it is thus drilled as regularly as the nature of the seed will allow the drillman will, however, most likely object to this admixture, as the charcoal-dust gives him much the appearance of a chimney-sweep. The land harrowed before, and rolled before and after drilling with a very light roller; the distance between the drills on light land is about I foot. The carrots are up in about three weeks, and in about a fortnight more the rows will be sufficiently visible for a 6 or 8-inch Dutch hoe to be used between them; in about a week or ten days after the Dutch hoeing the carrots are singled out with the common hoe, selecting all the strongest plants at about 8 inches apart; this costs from 5s. to 6s. per acre, and in three weeks or a month they require another hoeing.

The crops of carrots vary to 30 tons per acre. The purposes to which they are applied are feeding horses, cows, and fattening bullocks, for all of which they have been proved excellent.

from 400 to 1400 bushels, or from 10

This is the system practised on the western light lands. I am indebted to J. Rodwell, Esq., for a description of that of the eastern district :

"The Cultivation of White Carrots.

"Choose a clean piece of wheat or barley stubble, supposing it to be free from grass in November or December give it a dressing of from 12 to 15 loads per acre of farm-yard manure, then plough it in with a flat ploughing of about 4 or 5 inches deep in about February or March give it a ploughing of about 9 inches deep, followed by a subsoil ploughing of about 5 or 6 inches additional depth, making the soil all broken at least 14 inches deep: it then lies till about the middle of April, when give it two or three heavy harrowings to destroy the surface weeds, then follow this with a 2-horse roll to keep in the moisture and again to encourage vegetation; it then lies in this manner till the time is come for putting in the seed, which will be about the last week in April or the first week in May; then give it two or more harrowings as may be required, followed again by a 2-horse roll if the land is dry or cloddy, if it is not, a light barley roll is preferable; it will then be prepared for the seed, which should be put on with the drill as follows:

"The seed is laid in water in a bag for 48 hours about 8 or 9 days. before drilling; it is then taken out and spread on a floor about 9 or 10 inches thick, according to the temperature of the weather, so as not to let it get too warm; in about 6 or 7 days' time it will be nearly sprouted, when it will be quite time to put it in the ground, at 4 lbs. or 5 lbs. of dry seed to the acre, which deposit by mixing dry sand with it, making up altogether sand and seed mixed 4 pecks or thereabouts, according to the dryness and fitness of the seed for working through the drill; then follow the 1 or 2-horse roll with the drill as above mentioned, the rows at about 9 or 10 inches apart, the land after the drill being left with the drill marks quite open; the land is then left till fit for hoeing, which

D

comes on between the rows in about 20 or 25 days; the expenses of hoeing will vary according to season, but average from 15s. to 25s. per acre, when the land is to be left quite clean, and the plants all singled, so as to be about 8 inches apart in the rows. The time for taking them up will be about October or November; the expense of taking up will be from 8d. to 10d. per load of 40 bushels, according to the crop, which, upon a good sandy soil, will produce from 20 to 25 tous per acre of this invaluable root.

"The method of preserving the crop is to pack them in heaps of 20 bushels each in the field, covering them with a little dry straw, and over that about 3 to 4 inches of earth; they are then quite safe for the winter; but if the land is intended for an early crop, and it is necessary to remove them from the field, then lay them in rows about 3 feet wide at bottom, and throwing them up loosely in a conical form, and covering them with dry straw and earth in the above method. They will be found very nutritious food for every kind of cattle, and especially for the cart-stable, where we substitute 1 load or ton of white carrots as an equivalent to a coomb of beans when ground, or 2 coombs of oats, beginning to feed with them in October, and continuing till May. Allowing 1 load of 40 bushels of carrots and 3 bushels of ground beans, or 6 bushels of oats, to a stable of 6 horses, per week, giving them chaff with their corn and carrots, this, with straw (having neither hay nor stover), constitutes their food during the winter, maintaining them in good working condition. After the crop is taken off the land, spread the tops of the carrots as carefully as a dressing of farm-yard manure, then give it a good sound ploughing, making an excellent preparation for a crop.

"Note.-A proof, if proof were necessary, of the great utility of this root, is at this moment fully experienced on this farm, having horses, colts, oxen, cows, and swine feeding upon a crop of upwards of 20 tons to the acre, and this in a season when the white turnips are almost a failure in quality, the swedes are deficient in quantity and quality, and the beet-roots are entirely a failure; and when beans are 56s., and oats 32s. to 36s. per quarter.

"THOS. SCOTCHMER, "Bailiff to Joshua Rodwell, Esq.

"Alderton Hall, Suffolk, Jan. 11, 1847."

On those farms where only a breeding-flock is kept, the whole of the turnips are consumed on the land, and this is perhaps necessary on the very light blowing sands; but another system is practised by some, that of carting off a part of the turnips for feeding cattle, in the proportion of one-third or upwards, when the land has been manured, and the system of grazing sheep on the turnips: and wherever these two systems are adopted in preference to the practice of consuming the turnip-crop entirely by breeding ewes, the benefit may easily be seen. A great objection to keeping only a breeding flock is the difficulty of providing spring food for so great a number of sheep and lambs, while grazing sheep can be sold at any time. It is generally considered

by the best cultivators that a flock part grazing and part breeding is the most profitable to keep. It is a practice of some farmers (though not much to be recommended) to have their turnip-crop fed off by other persons' sheep at a certain rate per score. They certainly run no risk by investing their capital in sheep, but they are very liable to have their turnips fed off at an unseasonable time. And I have known when turnips have been very abundant, that those gentlemen who farm without any stock are glad to have their neighbours' sheep and feed them gratis, and sometimes give money in addition; and even occasionally dispose of part of their root-crop by ploughing them in.

Notwithstanding the prescribed limits of this report, it may not perhaps be out of place to give the details of the practice of grazing sheep on turnips. The farmers who practise this system either buy in lambs or shearlings, or fatten those they have reared. These are hurdled first on white turnips and then on swedes; the practice of cutting is on the increase, the turnips having of late years been cut with a machine and then given in troughs. This makes a slight increase of labour, but it effects a great saving in the food: the cost of tending amounts to about 1s. a score per week. Chaff (cut hay, the straw of oats, wheat, or peas, or the stalks of seed-clover) is given night and morning both to ewes and fatting sheep, the latter having generally hay-chaff, with the addition of linseed-cake or corn. As the fold is frequently at a considerable distance from the homestead, a supply of chaff and cake is kept in a small wooden house on wheels, which not only serves to keep the provender dry, but is also a comfortable shelter for the shepherd and his assistants while getting their meals. The troughs in which the dry food is given are usually covered, to prevent loss from the sheep refusing to eat the chaff and cake after they have been wetted. In very wet weather and on a loamy soil the sheep are removed to some dry pasture for a short time, as the trampling in very heavy rains is considered injurious both to the land and to the sheep. Swedes for fat sheep are stored in different ways: the usual one is in small heaps of about 40 bushels each. The turnips are either topped and tailed, or the tops only removed; the heaps are covered with straw and haulm, and then a thin layer of mould, leaving the straw exposed on the ridge to admit the air. The price for this varies from 7s. to 10s. per acre, according as the turnips are cleaned or not. Another plan is by laying three drills in a furrow; two rows of turnips are first pulled and laid on one side to give passage for the plough, a furrow is drawn, and three drills of turnips laid with their tops to the land-side; they are now covered by the first-ploughed furrow being turned back. When wanted for use the turnips are thrown out by running a plough along the furrow.