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An Essay on the Improvement to be Made in the Cultivation of Small Farms (1837)
An Essay on the Improvement to be Made in the Cultivation of Small Farms - 1837 Author:William Blacker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. GENERAL OBSERVATION UPON THE MODE OP CULTIVATION AT PRESENT IN USE AS TO POTATOES, TURNIPS, FLAX, AND WHEAT ADVANTAGE OF LATINO ON LIMB WITH TH... more »E POTATO CROP, A1TD GIVING HOUSE MANURE TO RAISE TURNIPS—NECESSITT FOK STOPPING THE SPREAD OF RAGWEED, COLTSFOOT, AND THISTLES, BT MEANS OF THE SEED—USE OF CHAFF AS AN ALTERATIVE FO CATTLE. Having laid down these general maxims, the propriety of which I think you cannot but admit, I should wish to lay before you some observations which have occurred to me in visiting your farms: the first I shall make, is upon your mode of ploughing old lea for oats; when this is done, you form so many hintons by ploughing each ridge separately, that nearly a seventh part of the entire surface is stripped of the good soil, and when the crop comes up, you will see the braird confined almost exclusively to the middle of the ridge, where the good soil is gathered in, and though it afterwards spreads, still a very considerable loss arises: now, if instead of ploughing each ridge by itself, you would take in six or eight, you would still preserve the land in the same form, but there wouldbeonly one hinton in the whole, in place of one for each ridge; so that the surface not being deprived of the good soil, would give the crop evenly over its whole breadth. You should also observe in all ploughing for grain, to be particularly careful to turn over the furrow slice, with such an inclination that the top exposed to view should as nearly as possible resemble a ridge stone in appearance, by which means the furrow slices will pack close, so as to prevent any seed escaping, and the angle at top will afford sufficient mould for the harrow to turn over and cover the seed. This inclination of the furrow slice is very material, and is produced partl...« less