1S6

ON THE LIVE-STOCK

or for soiling, or pastured for one or move years. Of 400acres of land under this course, there will thus be every year200 acres in corn crops and 100 in turnips, which requirethe labour of horses to be applied in the following order :—As soon as the crop is secured in the stack-yard, the ploughsare set to work on the land intended for turnips next sum-mer, which it is desirable to have all finished by the end ofNovember. But in the meantime some of the horses are em-ployed in raising and carting the potatoe crop, carrying tur-nips to the fold-yard, and in threshing and carrying to mar-ket a part of the corn crop. During the months of Decemberand January the grass lands, and the turnip land as fast as itis cleared, are ploughed for wheat and oats ; in frosty wea-ther, the dung is carted from the fold-yards to the next sum-mer’s turnip-fields, and turnips must be brought home, andthe crop threshed and carried to market, as in the former pe-riod. The labour at threshing is indeed inconsiderable, un-less the machine be worked by horses, in which case it forms avery serious addition to the ordinary labour of a farm. Theseseveral operations, and a variety of incidental jobs, give fullemployment from harvest to seed-time, which, when wheat issown in spring, begins in the month of February, if the wea-ther will permit. This important season is seldom over till themiddle of April, and frequently continues during a part ofMay, when'barley is sown after the latest of the turnip crop;while several other kinds of work must be attended to, suchas carrying small stones pff the hay field, and smoothing itwith the roller for the scythe, filling drains, &c. In the lat-ter end of April or beginning of May, potatoes must be plant-ed, and Swedish turnips sown as soon afterwards as possible ;both of them always requiring one spring ploughing, butoftener two; root-weeds must be collected after repeated har-rowings, the land thrown into drills or ridgelets, the intervalsdunged, and the ridgelets reversed. During the month ofJune the rest of the turnips must be all sown, after the sameseries of operations. In July and August, the remainder ofthe crop is usually sent to market, the turnips must be horse-