Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

7 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

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ON THE LIFE OF MAN.

THE EVENING STAR.

---------__-A FUND FOR AGED…

AN ADDRESS

!SPADE HUSBANDRY.

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digging at from lfd. to] 2d. per rod. In preparing for a fal- low crop, there i-s also an expense incurred in harrowing, and i in raising a ridge with the plough, which last is worth about Ye per acre, Mr. Mitchell is of opinioil that a course of seven years, in- 'stead of the usual one of four years, is best adapted to spade husbandry and his object has been to act upon this sys- tem as much as possible. 13 eing satisfied with the first trials, he soon augmented his farm to its present magnitude; and under the seven years' course, the following would be the descriptions of his various crops:—1st year, fallow crop of turnips, cabbages, or beet. 2nd, barley. 3rd and 4th, clover or artificial grasses. 5th, oats. 6th, beans, peas, or táres; and 7th, wheat, -It is to be observed that he always ploughed clover layer for the succeeding crop, not dug it; and that the horses, when not Wanted for other purposes, are employed in assisting the dig- gers in preparing the land for seed. Spade husbandry, indeed, can hardly be expected, even in its completest form, altoge- ther to exclude the plough, when carried on to a considerable extent; for as a certain number of horses are necessary for various operations upon a farm, these will naturally be em- ployed in ploughing, when they are not required for other duty, 1"atlier than that they should stand idle. Twenty labourers, besides a bailiff, are kept upon the farm, instead of thirteen, who would be necessary under the ordinary system; and five or six horses instead of twelve. With so small a number of horses, it is clear, that they would not be equal to all the hay and corn harvest; and hence a good deal of the hay and corn are always stacked in the fields where they are grown. Mr. Mitchell considers it to be an advantageous consequence of snade cultivation, that it improves the soil so much as to enable it to bear the clover artificial grasses for two years in- stead of one by which means the expense of one year's tillage is saved in the course adopted. He thinks it not impossible, likewise, that by the advancing amelioration of the soil, clover may be borne on it more than once in eight years, whidi is the shortest interval of its repetition in the county of Norfolk; some of the other artificial grasses being substituted at the interven- ing period for grass seeds. Spade husbandry is not a system of expense or risk. Less capital is necessary for it than ordinary husbandry, in the smaller number of horses and implements required, while the advantages are speedily exhibited. Its tendency is to diminish and keep down the poor rates, to aid materially the favourable operation of the poor laws while at the same time it raises the workman in the scale of society, by increasing the amount of his remuneration, and by making it depend on steady habits of industry. It bears a considerable resemblance to horticulture in its operation on the soil, which it loosens, deepens, and cleanses much more thoroughly than can be done by the plough and harrow. By turning up the ground, likewise, five or six inches deeper than the plough, which does not ordinarily act on more than three or four inches of soil, there is an opportunity af- forded for the descent and diffusion of the roots, which are often interrupted in their progress by a hard and impervious under surface. With regard to wheat I have had an opportu- nity of observing, that the number and length of the roots are much more considerable in forked than in ploughed land.