cUir D. ii Hill library Nnrth (Carolina &tatp Hninpraily Special Collections 1680 1771 THIS BOOK MUST NOT BE TAKEN FROM THE LIBRARY BUILDING. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from NCSU Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/farmerskalendaroOOyoun THE F "A R M E R's KALENDAR; O R, Monthly Directory, \ £sS4^es s* 7 THE Farmer's Kalendar; OR, A MONTHLY DIRECTORY FOR ALL SORT S OF COUNTRY BUSINESS: CONTAINING, PLAIN INSTRUCTIONS FOR PERFORMING THE WORK OF VARIOUS KINDS OF FARMS, IN EVERY SEASON OF THE YEAR. RESPECTING PARTICULARLY The buying, Feeding, and felling Live Stock. The whole Culture of Arable Crops. The Management of GrafTes. The ceconomical Con- duct of the Farm, &c. BY AN EXPERIENCED FARMER. LONDON, Printed for Robinson and Roberts, No. 25, in Pater-nofter-Row ; and J. Knox, at No. 148, in the Strand. MDCCLXXI. s« CONTENTS JANUARY. QHEEP, *v-3 Folding Sheep, Page 3 6 Farm Yard, 8 Gows, 9 Fatting Beafts, Swine, ii 12 Horfes, 13 Thrafhing, *5 Fences, 16 ^Draining, 2© A 3 c s.' A P R I L. Barley, - - Page 97 White Peafe, and Buck-Wheat, 99 Madder, - . . - IOt Licquoricc, - -*- 104 Lucerne, 105, Sainfoine, - - M Burnet, ' 1 10 Sheep, „ - i 1 r Cows, - 117 Horfes, and Gxen, 11S Hogs, ■ I!() Potatoes, - ' - I20 Carrots, • - 121 Cabbages, 122 Water-furrowing, _ *f£3 Turnip Fallow, x 1-4 C'QNTE N T'S.- Woods, " - - Page 124 hedging; "Clear Grafs Fields, 125 Rolling, - % - K* Hops, -M A Y. t 12I Fartn Yard, 130 battle in Grafs,* *34 Buck- Wheat, *3* Lucerne, ^39 Sainfoine, 140 Burnet, 141 Carrots, - ... — ^ 142 Potatoes, H3 Cabbages, 144 Madder, and Licquorice, - 146 Wheat Fallow, *47 Horfe-hoed Corn, 149 Sheep, - - \gQ p N T !•; N T S. The Fallo - - Page 221 Folding, Dig Manures, - 224 Jcr, - 226 Cut Peafe, - 227 ley, - 228 Wheat, - - 229 J G U S T. Harveft, -> 1 Barley, 3cc. Harveft, 240 Buck-Wheat, and Peafe, 242 Beans ; Turn iip and Rape-Seed, 244 Gleaning, - 246 Harvcihnen, - 248 Farm Yard, - : 250 Turnips, - 25* Cabbages, - 252 Sow Cabbage Seed ; Po: -53 Lucerne, - 2 54 CONTENT S; Sainfoinc, - Page 255 Burnet, 256 Fallows, -SI Dig Manures, « ' 258 Folding, 260 Hogs; and Ga 261 SEPTEMBER. Wheat, - - . - 263 Clover, 269 Sheep, 270 Fatting Bearls, 279 Cows, 281 The Teams, . - 282 Manure Grafs, 283 Scarify Grafs Lands, 284 Burnet, - - 287 Fern, 288 Stubble, = : 289 Hops, 290 CONTENT S. Plough Fallows, - Page:: or Water-furrowing, - 297 Lucerne, - - 1299 Folding, - 3Qi OCTOBER. Hiring Farms, 3*S Servants, 308 Farm Yard, 316 The Teams, - 3iS Cow: , 3-i Fatting Beafts, „ - -1 2, Hogs 3^4 Sheep, &A Manure Qrafs, B»7 Dig up Carrots, - 3$X Plough up Potatoes, 3*4 Lay up the Fallows, 335 Mazagdn Beans, . 336 Plough fos Carrots, ^ - 38 CONTENTS. Plough and dig for Madder, Page 341 Pigging for JLicquorice, - 343 NOVEMBER. Farm Yard, 345 TThraihing, * 2 34^ Fences, • 347 Borders, ■ r « 35° Folding, r 353 The Teams, 354 Draining, , - r 356 Woods, 358 Water Meadows, 359 J3urnet, - 36? Walling, 362 Dig Manures, - 365 Cut AntrHills, 366 Madder, and Peafe, 37* Fell Timber, - 37 2 Sheep, r » 374 I X T L \ T S. DECEMBER. .. filing, * - Page J82 i yard, 386 The Teams, - sss Plough up- Lays, Girt Manure, 39 1 Sheep, 39- Cows, and Swine, 395 Fences ; Manure Grafs Lands, 397 Dig Manures, 39S INTRODUCTION. GARDENERS have found great ufe in Kalendars of the necefiary work for every month in the year ; and, if the two profeffions be well confidered, it will appear, that farmers want fucli a remembrancer, at leaft as much as their brethren in the garden. The enquiry is not the utility of fuch. a work to old, experienced, and good hufbandmen ; becaufe no country is cultivated by fuch alone : but to younger, and lefs able ones, fuch a work cannot fail of being a ufefal companion. At the beginning of every "nionth, a farmer, whether he has or has not a book of this fort, mould reflect on the a work INTRODUCTION*. work to be done in that month : he ought to furcfec the whole, or clfe it is impohTole he mould make a proper proviiion for it. Now I leave to any one to judge, if this juft idea can be gained fo eafily, and be fo complete, without fome further rccollc&ion than mere memory ; and if a book of this fort but once in a year reminds him of fome important work, which he would otherwife have forgotten, it will by every one be allowed to pay him ample intercfl for the fmall fum that is requi- site to purchafe it. I hint this, becaufe common farmers are generally poor, at leaft in what concerns the purchafe of many things they think fuperfiuous ; I would there- fore fhew them, that a book ?nay be of fome ufe : a truth they will not all acknowledge. As to the Kalcndars which have hi- therto appeared, they are very flight fketches; INTRODUCTION. Sketches ; added to other books ; extreme-* \y imperfect, omitting at lead as many ufeful articles as they have given; in works of high prices ; and, in a word, fcarcely in the leaft inftance precluding the want of fuch a book as is now offered to the public. About fifty years ago* a celebrated Englifimaii) Mr. Tull, made many ex^ periments, in a new method of culture* the great defign of which was to fet afide the ufe of manures. To this day he has had many followers. With the gentlemen that purftie his fyftem, tillage alone is neceffary — the plough is all in all, and nothing is to be dunged, or dtherwife dreffed, but meadows or pas- tures. Were fuch ideas to become ge- neral, it is inconceivable how much mifchief they would occafion ; for there cannot be more falfe principles, than thofe whereon they are built. Through- out thefe meets, care is taken to keep a 2 clear INTRODUCTIO . of fuch errors. The great im- portance of manures is duly attended to, and the farmer well inftru&ed how to raife as much as poflible himfelf. This part of husbandry can never be too much attended to, nor can any have been more neglected by the generality of writers ; indeed, except by one or two, (who it muft be owned have treated it in a very mafterly manner) they have not thought it worthy their attention. There is another point, in which alt the old writers of hufbandry are totally deficient ; it is that of farmers keeping accounts : this is a matter of very great confequence ; and, as the monthly di- rections could not include it, it will be proper to be a little particular on it here. It is not kmg fir.ee a fpecimen of ac- counts was laid before the public, con- fining of lcveral books, in imitation of merchants account, ; but I humbly think that • INTRODUCTION. that too complicated methods fhould not be recommended, left the farmer, inftead of being enlightened, mould only be difgufted. The grand object is to keep a ledger, or account for every article in the farm ; in which an account mould be opened for every field in the farm, or at leaft for every arable field, and one for all the grafs. The farmer mould in this book dire&Iy, without the inter* vention of a wafte-book or a journal, enter all his expences ; but, for doing this, he mull take the trouble of divid- ing his rent to every field, fo that the account may be complete, and not have an article for rent alone, unlefs it be a mere memorandum ; and, before he ba- lances his books at the end of the year, it is neceffary for him firft to call up the fundry accounts, fuch as tythe— -poor levy — various expences — and divide them in the fame manner as rent, a 3 T ° INTRODUCTION. • To explain this, let us fuppofc, that under the article Tythe he enters the round fum he pays the parfon this year, (which may vary the next) as it is for all his tythes, grafs, arable, fmall tythe, &c. It is a grofs exuence for the whole farm in general, and therefore, if it comes to ioo/. and he has 400 acres, he mould enter it $s. per acre to every field. In the fame manner, the poor tax, and other parifh charges, mould be managed : thefe vary every year ; at the end, the fum total mould be di- vided among the acres, and charged to each field. Another article is the Sundry expences, fuch as odd labour that con- cerns no particular account, bailiff's wages, expences at market, and, in a word, all money fpent, that cannot be properly placed to diftincl accounts. The fum total to be divided as above. Fences are another article, which mould be thus divided. When this method is Allowed, the farmer has it always in his INTRODUCTION. his power to fee the real profit and lofs of every field, which is a point of great confequence. He can then at any time, by turning over his book, fee what courfes of crops have paid him beft : he may difcover in this manner, that, in feveral fields of the fame foil, fome courfes have paid him far better than others. For inflance : he finds that a ten- acred clofe, thrown into the fyftem of, i. Turnips, 2. Barley, 3. Clover, 4. Wheat, has paid him, at the end of eight years, 126/. i8.f. 4^. and that other ten acres, thrown into, 1. Fallow, 2. Wheat, 3. Barley, 4. Oats, paid him, in that time, no more than 68/. 16 j. id. He fees at once how greatly preferable one courfe is to the a 4 other, INTRODUCTION. other, and not only from a general, vague idea, but a clear balance ftruck between them. In the fame manner, he compares all his forts of cattle, and fees at one view which anfwers beft. No perfon can doubt of the great ad- vantages of this conduct being carried through a farm : it is what has properly been explained by no author ; but, to make it perfectly iimple and plain to the capacity of the lowed farmer, it would be neceflary to give more minute ex- amples than are proper for this intro- duction. The advantages, which muft follow fo accurate an attention to hufbandry as a Kalendar leads to, with a due confe- deration of the importance of regular farming accounts, brings me to offer a word or two on the profit of hufbandry, when properly conducted. Whoever will give good attention to improve- ments, will find it a bufinefs yielding better INTRODUCTION. better intereft for money than any other, and at the fame time wonderfully healthy and agreeable : it is in every Icale, from the largeft tenures down to the leaft farms, nearly connected with all the enjoyments of a country life, with houfe-keeping, horfes, equipage, fporting, &c. &c. and, if there is the leaft prudence in the management, many advantages of every kind may be reaped, without falling into dangerous expences. The benefit of being able to employ fmall fums of money is peculiar to huf- bandry. What trade can be fet up without introduction or partnership, in which a man can employ five hundred pounds ? In moft he mull have nearer five thoufand ; but in husbandry, a young man that is not extravagant, and will mind his bufinefs, may on fuch a farm as 500/. will flock, live very agree- ably ; for it will fix him on eighty or an hun- INTRODUCTION. hundred acres of good land, which will yvjdhjm an annual profit of from ioo/. to 200/. a year clear, or from 30 to 40 per cent, for his mo:u But when I fpeak of fuch a profit, it is to be underftood, that I mean by fol- lowing a fomewhat better hufbandry than common. Bad common management will not yield (o great an advantage, but improved methods change the cafe greatly ; not however that I would by any means recommend his deviating in the expenfive gimcrack parts of huf- bandry, which are fit only for gardens or experiment-grounds ; but merely to adopt the culture of fuch plants as will pay well for an accurate management in large. I have mentioned his farming fo little as eighty or an hundred acres,; but a much fmaller quantity may be profitably managed, and yet a team kept. A good INTRODUCTION. A good farmer will always remem- ber, that there Is more profit in a maf- terly cultivation of a few acres, than in the flovenly conduct of many. Lucerne, cabbages, carrots, and po- tatoes, may every where be fafely in- troduced, excepting certain foils, few in number, that are improper for fome of them. If the culture of thefe plants is purfued, a team may be employed on a very fmall farm with advantage ; but, as manuring of all forts is of in- finite confequence, efpecially to thefe luxuriant growing plants, a fmall farm, on which they are introduced, would be particularly profitable, if fituated within reach of a town, where manures could be purchafed ; becaufe then all the time not wanted in tillage, &c. miglit be employed in bringing dung, &c. To ftate a cafe, which will explain this idea, and illuflrate fome particulars 4 in INTRODUCTION. in the enfuing pages: Suppofe the team or a little farm to confift of four horfes, and the diftance from purchafed manure fuch as admits of one journey every day, the expence may be ftated as follows. Keeping 4 horfes a year, exclu- live of fummer food, £. 40 o o 1 Man, m - 25 o o Wear and tare, - 2.0 o o 300 Waggon loads of manure, at 5 j. - 75 o o Beer for the man, and turnpikes, 300 journies, at is. gd. 26 5 o Total, 186 5 c 300 Waggon loads. 600 Cart, at 6 j. 3d. a load. This is the price, at which he would get the manure, whether he thus em- ployed the team the whole year at it, or only a part. Suppofe INTRODUCTION. Suppofe the farm confifled of five acres of lucerne, five of natural grafs, and thirty-five of arable land thrown into the following courfe : 1. Potatoes, 2. Carrots, 3. Cabbages, 4. Barley, 5. Clover, 6. Clover, 7. Wheat. Ten acres every year of clover, and five of each of the other crops. And fup- pofe further, that the potatoes, carrots, cabbages, half the clover, and the lu- cerne, every year manured, as above, with 12 loads an acre, at 6s. ^d. In this cafe the expences per acre would be nearly as follow. The lucerne, 6 /. The cabbages, 7/. The potatoes, 8/.j and 10/. more for buying lean hogs to fat. The carrots, 10/.- and 20/. more for buying hogs to fat. INTRODUCTION. The wheat, 3/. 151. The barley, 3/. 15^. The clover, half at 4/. 141. and half at 1 /. 1 o s. The grafs at 1/. jj-. rent and charges. All expences whatever are included in thefe fums. Expences. 5 Acres lucerne, at 6/. /, ' . 30 o 5 of cabbages, at 7/. 35 o o 5 of carrots, at 30/. - 150 o o 5 of potatoes, at 18/. - 90 o o 5 of wheat, at 3/. 15/. 18 15 o 5 of barley, at ditto, - 18 15 o 5 of clover, at 4/. 14/. 23 10 o 5 of ditto, at 1 /. 1 o j. 710 o 5 of grafs, at 1 /. 5 s. - 650 Sundry labour in carting it home, &c. &c. - 30 1 o Total, - - 409 15 o INTRODUCTION. Frodutl. Product of 5 acres lucerne, and 5 cabbages •, the keeping 1 7 cows, at 6/. per cow, - £• *°2 o o 5 Acres carrots, at 700 bufhels per acre ; 3500 bufhels, at 6d. per bufhel, £. 87 10 o Prime coft of the hogs, - 100 o o 5 Acres potatoes, at 500 bufhels per acre, 2500 bufhels, at 9 d. per bufhel, - 93 Prime coft of hogs, 50 15 1U u 5 Acres of wheat, 5 of barley, jo of clover, 5 loads 30 j. 7/. 10 j. The grafs for the horfes. Total, Expences, *43 4 o 35 hay, at " . 15 5*3 409 5 15 Clear profit* 173 10 There can be no doubt but this cuU iivation might be realized in any place, the INTRODUCTIO the fituation of which would admit the above fuppoiitions. The crops are large, but not too great for fuch molt un- common improvement by manuring. e we fee how great a profit may be made by a fpirited hufoandry on a i'mall fpace of ground ; but common farmers will never equal any thing of this fort, for want of attending more to ufeful books, w T hich point out the culture of thefe valuable plants, and direct their management. This inflance mews the importance of attending well to hufban- dry, under certain improvements, which render it fo much more profitable than mod other bufmefTes. An employment of money, that will allow of men great advantages, much deferves a little more than the attention of common farmers. It is to be hoped, that this Kalcndar will affift in fuch undertakings, and not be turned to in vain by others, who defigft to purfue only the ufual fyftem of ma-' nagement. s THE F A R M E R's KALENDAR, HUSBANDRY is an art fo ex- tremely various in its operations, its profefTors have fuch a perpetual call for their attention, and every month brings fo many works, that muft be ex- ecuted in a given time, and fome of them almofl to a day, that fcarcely any bufinefs requires a better memory, none a ftri&er obfervance of feafons. An old experi- enced farmer may not want a kalendar, to remind him of the work neceffary to be done, in every month, upon the gene- rality of farms j but to younger ones, and B the v r Stnte College 2 THE FARMERS the whole tribe of gentlemen farmers, fuch a companion cannot be altogether ufelefs. Hufbandry has, for many years, been my only bufinefs; and the work, now piiblifhed for the ufe of my brother farmers, is actually an enlargement of a manufcript, originally drawn up for my own ufe. I found the benefit of fuch a monitor fo great, that, for feveral reafons, I kept adding frefh particulars, as they occurred in the practice of my bufinefs, and have ever fince experienced no flight advantage from often turning over my Kalendar, to fee if I had the works of the ieaibn in hand. I have been as concife as I could in the directions how each bufinefs is to be performed. Some inftructions of this fort were necefl'ary for the young prac- titioner; but it was likewife necefTary to keep fuch parts within due bounds, and not fwell them with all the miautise. of farming. KALENDAR. _ JANUARY. J »„. i, m» . i— i.. i. i ■ ■■ — ■■■■i» — ■ '—mm ■ .■■ ■■ . m, ■■■■ ■ — i *» ■ SHEEP. IN this month the farmer's ewes ard generally lambing. Great care ought to be taken of them : they feldom want turnips before; for moft farmers have grafs enough, either in whole fields, or in borders, &c. for lean ftock fheep to pick up a living till they are near lamb- ing, when they fhould have turnips regu- larly given them. The belt method is to draw the turnips, and cart them to a dry gravelly pafture, and there bait the fheep on them twice a day, obferving well that they eat clean, and make no wafte ; which is not a bad rule for the quantity neceflary. In this way, the tur- B 2 nip 4 THE FARMERS nip crop goes much the fartheft. On very dry lands, many farmers, for the fake of manuring for barley, will eat the crop on the land, herdling off a certain quantity for the flock; and, as fail as they eat them pretty clean, remove the hcrdles farther. This method faves much trouble; but it. flionld only be pradtifed on lands that are perfectly and abfo- hitely dry, otherwise the fheep poach it, and do as much rnifchief as good. The crop, In the dryeft land, will not go fo far as if drawn and laid in a grafs field; for the fheep dung, and Male, and tram- ple on, many roots after they are be- gun, which occafions much wafte : nor is there any lofs of manure in carting them, only it is left, in one inftance, on the arable field, and, in the other, on the grafs one: nor can any improvement be greater than this of feeding the fheep with turnips ; on whatever land they are given, the benefit is always very great. * It KALENDAR. 5 It is further to be obferved, that many fheep are fattened on turnips, particularly wethers ; in which husbandry many turnips are wafted, if you have not two flocks, one lean to follow the fatting fheep, to eat up their leavings; for they will not eat clean in fatting. In very wet weather, ftorms, or deep fnows, the fheep and lambs mould be baited on hay ; fome farmers drive them to hay Hacks, which fhelter and feed them at the fame time; and fheep in general do extremely well fo; others give it in moveable racks ; and allow a certain quantity every day. It is an excellent method to allow them in' their racks a fmall quantity of hay daily while on tur- nips, let the weather be good or bad : but it is not abfolutely neceffary. In fome parts of the kingdom the beft farmers give their ewes and lambs in this month bran and oats in troughs, while they are.feeding on turnips ; but it muft be an extraordinary fine breed for fuch a practice to repay. 6 THE FARMER'S FOLDING SHEEP. THE farmers, even in thofe parts of the kingdom which underftand fold-» ing the beft, and practife it the moft, do not extend it fo far as they might ; they give over folding in November or December^ whereas it may certainly be carried through the whole winter with profit. On thofe farms which have a perfectly dry gravelly pafture or two, it is highly advifeable to fold all winter on fiich dry grafs land. It mud not be aN tempted on arable land, nor on moift grafs ; but on dry gravelly paftures : the fafety to the fheep is undoubted, and the benefit to the grafs prodigious. But there is another method of gaining all the be- nefit of folding, quite through the win- ter, and on all foils ; this is to confine them at night in a fheep-yard, well and regularly littered with ftraw, ftubble, or fern ; by which means you keep your flock KALENDAR. 7 flock quite warm and healthy in bad fea- fons ; and at the fame time raife a fur- prifing quantity of dung : fo great a quantity, if you have plenty of litter, that the profit will be better than folding on the land. And a great improvement in this method, would be the giving the fheep all their food (except their pafture) in fuch yard ; viz. hay and turnips ; for which purpofe they fhould be brought up, not only at night, but alfo to be baited about noon: but if their pafture be at a diftance, they fhould then come to the yard the earlier in the evening; and go out the later in the morning, inftead of baiting at noon. This is a practice which cannot be too much re- commended ; for fo warm a lodging is a great matter to young lambs, and will tend much to forwarding their growth ; the fheep will alfo be kept in good health ; and, what is a point of vaft confequence to all farms, the quantity of dung raifed will be very great. If this method is B 4 purfued ■« TJiE FARMER'S purfued through the months of Decern^ January, February, March, and April, with plenty of litter, ioo {beep will make a dunghill of at leaft 60 loads of excel- lent fluff, which, when rotten, will ma- nure two acres of land amply : whereas 100 fheep folded (fuppofing the grafs dry enough) will not in that time equally manure one acre. FARM YARD. I N this month a ftrict attention fhould be given to the cattle in the yard or yards — thofe I mean which run loofe in them ; take care that they are regularly fupphed with draw, and that they have always water at command : the thralhers fhould be fo proportioned to the ftock of lean cattle, as to make the ftraw laft jufi through the winter, Take good care alio to keep the yard well littered from the ftacks raifed in the autumn, of ftraw, flubble, fern, c?r. fo that the cattle may always KALENDAR. q always lay perfectly dry and clean. Their health requires this attention ; which ihould, however, be given, were it merely for railing large quantities of manure. COWS. ■ SEVERAL of your cows will probably calve in this month ; about a fortnight before, theyfhould be taken into the cow-houfe from the ftraw-yard, and be baited twice a day with green food ; turnips, cabbages, carrots, potatoes, or -whatever is the winter field food. After they calve they mould be feparated quite from the lean ftock, either into the houfe or another yard, to be fed upon thole articles with ftraw by them, but to eat no more than they pleafed. Hay mull be banifhed from this management, if you would make much profit by your cows : there certainly is no ufe in it, which is ftrongly proved by feveral good farmers io THE FARMER'S farmers I know, who make turnips and ftraw do without it ; but this is for cows that are fuckled : if they are milked, tur- nips muft not be given, as they make the cream and butter tafte ; and the latter then fells at a low rate. Cabbages, or carrots, &c. fhould then be fubftituted, but chiefly the former, which will main- tain cows in the cheapeft manner in the world, and make the butter perfectly fweet ; but you muft pick off the de- cayed and yellow leaves, giving your cows nothing but the heart of the cab- bage ; the refufe leaves will be eat clean up by the lean cattle. The great ex- pence of winter feeding cows with hay eats up half the profit of the dairy ; even if none be given till they calve : for fup- pofe them to calve in 'January or February^ there remains three or four months at hay. KALENDAR. it FATTING BEASTS. A T this time the farmer who makes it his bufinefs to winter fat, is in the height of his work. There are three methods of fatting ; carrying their tur- nips, &c. to a dry grafs field, to a farm yard, or toahoufe where the beafts are tied up ; the two latter methods are the beft. i — Scarcely any pafture is dry and found enough to bear the tread of an ox in winter. If you fat in a yard, the food, viz. turnips, cabbages, or carrots, mufl be given in mangers under open fheds, with good ftraw always in the racks, if hay is fhort with you ; but they will pay you well for hay : the fame rule is to be followed in ftall feeding ; but obferve to litter well, elfe they will prefently have a bound hide, and not thrive well from dirt : in either of thefe methods, you muft be well provided with a vafl quantity of j* THE FARMERS of litter. I would advife three waggon loads of draw, ftubble, or fern, to every bead, for lb much they will make into dung, which ought to be your guide, and not the expence of the litter, as the du!i;.' : will repay that with great profit. I am fenfiblc lefs will do; but always re- member, that the raifing dung in winter is the grand pillar of your hufbandry. S W I N E, THIS is a principal feafon with fwlue, both for rattening, rearing, and bring- ing forth. As the two firft are men- tioned largely under other montlis, I fhall, at p-reient, fpeak only of the manage- ment of your fows and pigs. They mull be k^pt each litter in a ftie, and fed with dairy wall), put of your citterns, and with the food you ftored for them in autumn, either carrots, parfnips, or potatoes. Theie roots all do excellently for them; to lub- ftitute KALENDAR. 13 ftitute barley or peafe, or even purchafed bran or pollard, is therefore a moil un- profitable conduct The fows mould always have as much as they will eat, or the pigs will mffer; and what is of as much confequence, is keeping them well littered: let them be always perfectly clean; it enfures the health of the pigs, and, at the fame time, raifes you a large quantity of the beft manure about a farm, HORSES. ONE of the moft ufeful general leffons, that can be given to an arable farmer, is to keep his horfes always at work : the expence of a team is fo great, that, if he does not purfue this rule, he muft lofe by them. January is a month, in which all bufinefs of tillage ought to be at a ftop : if the weather is a hard froft, care fhould be taken, to make ufe of it in cart- ing manures on the farm : if you have cornpofts 14 THE FARMER'S comports ready for the barley land, do not let a froft flip; or, if you have fag- got carting, or the earth of borders un- der hedges to carry on, keep the carts clofe to it as long as the froft lafts. But, if the weather is open, road work mull be done ; carting out the corn will not near employ the teams ; all other days the waggons mould go to the nearcfl town for manure. There certainly are fitu- ations precluded from this advantage, but not many : how well it would an- fvver to keep a team on purpofe for the employment, depends on various circum- fiances ; but we may be aflured, that it mull always anfwer greatly to employ the teams about it, when they would other- wife fland flill ; for then the expence is little more than labour, and wear and tear. The fame obfervations are applicable to the ox teams ; and the farmer mould have a ftrict eye, that both horfes and oxea KALENDAR. 15 oxen have plenty of litter ; otherwife his farm will fuffer in a deficiency of ma* oure, THRASHING. IN the thrafliing the crops of corn andl pulfe, I before remarked, that the farmer fhould be attentive to proportion his thrafhers to the ftock of lean cattle, that neither more or lefs ftraw may arife, than is regularly confumed. Relative to the management of the thrafhers, the farmer fhould be very clear-fighted to their mo- tions, both as to the cleannefs of their work, and to their honefty : he may lofe immenfely, if his ftraw is not thrafhed clean ; and, as it is a work generally per- formed by meafure, the men are too apt to turn over the ftraw too quick, and thrafh out only that corn, which comes the eafieft from the ear. In refpecl: to pilfering, the work gives them greater I oppor~ 16 THE FARMER'S opportunities for it than any other ; for which reafon, he fhould have a fharp look out, and take care now and then to meet the men of an evening in their way home, and to come upon them in the barn, at various times, and unawares. Such a conducl: will keep men honeft, if they are fo already, and' prevent many knaves from practifing their roguery ; whereas an indolent, inattentive mafter, will make pilferers. FENCES. THIS is a principal feafon for hedg- ing and ditching. A farmer cannot give too much attention to the fences of his farm ; for, without good ones, he might as well cultivate open fields : he cannot manage them as he pleafes, but is for ever crampt, for fear his own or other people's cattle fhould break into his corn or hay fields. In. fencing, it fhould be deter- KALENDAR. |f determined to execute the work in the Deft manner, which is the plaining me- thod. It is done in the following man- ner : the men firft clear the old hedge of all the dead wood and brambles, and other irregular growing rubbifh, leaving along the top of the bank the ftraighteft and beft growing ftems, whether thorns, hazel, elm, oak, afh, fallow, beach, &x. about five or fix in a yard ; but, if there are any gaps or places thin of live wood, on each fide of fuch places they leave the more. When this work is done, they repair the ditch : I mould never advife a lefs than three feet by two and a half, and fix inches wide at bottom, in the drieft foils j but, in all wet of moifl: ones, never lefs than four by three, and one at bottom. All the earth that arifes from the ditch is to be thrown on to the bank. Your men, if you do not bargain with, them before hand, will lay fome of it on the brow of the ditch; but this mull never be allowed, unlefs the ditch earth C happen*? iS THE FARMER'S happens to be extraordinary rich, and tu pay well for carrying on to the land, otherwife the grafs of the border is ipoil- tdi and you are at the expence of carting earth, and is worth but little. When the ditch is finifhed, the men begin the hedge: they rirft lay a thin layer of dead bram- bles or bufhes along on the bank hang- ing towards the ditch ; then they obferve* among the flems left in the cutting the hedge, fuch as grow in the line where the new hedge is to run, and cut them off about three feet from the top of the bank, to ferve for hedge ftakes to the new hedge. This practice cannot be too much commended ; for thefe ftakes be- ing immovable, and never rotting, keep up the new hedge ; fo that it never falls, or leans either way. Next they drive in their dead hedge ftakes where wanted, chufing fallows or willows, that they may grow. The hedgers then plafli down the remainder of the live wood left Handing : they cut the ftick twice, one ftroke KALENDAR. 19 ftrokenear the ground, and the other about 10 or 12 inches higher, and juft deep enough to flit out a part of the wood be- tween the two, leaving the ftem fupported by little more than the bark, or about a quarter of its firft fize ; it then is laid along the top of the bank, and weaved among the hedge flakes. All are ferved thus ; and, where they are not thick enough to finifh the hedge, dead thorns are wove among them ; then the top of the hedge is eddered in the common manner. The fence thus made, confifts of a good ditch arid a hedge, moft parts of which are alive; that is, the flakes, and much of the wood that is weaved between them. The importance of hav- ing as much as poflible of the hedge alive, cannot be too ftrongly- imprefled. This management enfures a lafting fence; whereas the hedges that are all dead, prefently rot, and fall into the ditch. Thofe farmers, who live in countries that Vnow nothing of the plafhing method, G 2 cannot 20 THE FARM Ml cannot give too much attention to teach-* ing their men : the beft way is, to fend for labourers from the plafiVng coun- tries, who, in one feafon, will eafily in- ftruct his regular men in the bull nets, which they may afterwards perform without dillkukv. DRAINING. JANUARY is as proper a feafon f of draining as any in the year. There are feveral forts of drains ; but I mall confine myfelf at prefent to the covered ones. There are two methods of making them ; one by ploughs, which cut them either at one, or various furrows, according to their merit ; and by digging with a fyf- tem of fpades, which work one after the other, fo as to dig a drain about four inches wide at bottom, and of various depths, and breadths at top. If a far- mer occupies land that has no ftones large KALENDAR. 21 forge enough in it to obflrud: a plough, that implement is by all means advife- able ; for the expence of cutting the drains with a plough, mftead of fpades, is not near fo great. But it fhould be obierved, that draining ploughs can only cut the fmali drains ; fpades jnuft be ufed for the main ones ; their various courfe, and fuperior depths require manual work, Suppofe a large field drained by paral- lel cuts of a plough, Hill the water mufl be carried out of thofe cuts by deeper drains dug, unlefs the land has a regular defcent ; but, whether the operation be performed by a plough, at a fmall ex- pence, or by fpades at a large one, ftilj the neceffity of the improvement for wet foils remains the fame, and thofe who have had experience of their nature, will not regret the expence of perform- ing the work effectually. Wet grafs- lands are for ever overr-run with ruihes, and other aquatic rubbiih ; the hay of little value, and fmall in quantity. Ara-* C 3 % 12 THE FARMER'S ble land, that is wet, can never be ap- plied to a profitable purpofe : it is too adhcfive to plough, when kindlier foils have received their tillage, and are fown: in wet feafons, the crops are too trifling to pay expences : whatever attention is given to water-furrow them, ftill the land will not have that mellow, favour- able nature, that enables it to yield ad- vantageous crops. The expence of co- vered drains may be eftimated, on an average, at 3 /. an acre, when done with fpades. Now this expenditure will, in a moderate cafe, be repaid by the mere laving of the extra expence of water- furrowing, exclufive of all the fuperior benefits of it. Covered drains, dug 32 inches deep, four inches wide at bottom, and 12 at top, and filled about ten inches deep, may be completely executed at $d. a perch, where labour is \\d. per day in winter. In refpett to filling up thefe drains, the farmer mull be guided by the circumftances of fituation ; if ftones arc / KALENDAR. 23 are to be had in great plenty, he mould fill with them : bufhes, common faggoi wood, bricks, horns, and bones, turf laid in like a wedge, ftraw, fern, ling> ftubble, &:c. &c. are all ufed in various places ; and in EJex^ where thefe drains have been made almoft time immemorial, the farmers infift, that the great object is not durability of materials, but the arching pf the earth, when the materials are rotten and gone. In many partes of that county, drains run well to this day, that were filled with nothing but ftraw, more than thirty years ago.. The extending fuch a practice mould, however, depend abfo- lutely on foil ; for moft certainly there are foils, in which fuch a practice would be totally inexpedient. § 4 ft THfe lARMLR's FEBRUARY, BEANS. IN this month, begin to low your bean crop, and, if your foil and the feafon agree, iinifh if you can j for later fown crops will not fucceed fo well. The land ought to have been ploughed into the ihree-foot ridge, and well water-furrowed the autumn before ; by which means your only object now will be the feed earth : fo that the jirjl dry feafon may be taken for fowing. lb get the bean crop in the land in February is an object of much confequeuce, if the foil is dry enough. As to the methods of fowing, there are many. Some farmers fow the bean? over Library N. C. State College KALENDAR. *j Over the land, and plough them in; others plough firft, and harrow in the feed j and thefe both on ridge and flat work. The beft way of fowing is either to half plough the ridges, and fowing broad-cafi, afterwards iiniih ; or tQ fprain them by hand before the plough, fo that they may rife in rows on the tops pf the ridges. In the latter way, they are in fingle rows ; but, in the former, double. In the following fummer, the fingle rows are ploughed between, in the horfe-hoeing manner, and the double ones hand-hbed : both are common huf-r bandry in feveral parts of the kingdom. But I ihall recommend, in preference to them, ufing a drill plough at leaft for ^bedding the feed, as it executes that work with much greater accuracy, than any hand in the world can do. Light drills may be had to wheel along the ground, like a wheel-barrow, The ufe of fuch an inftrument will fave much money, at the fame time that it performs the of THE FARMER'S the work much better than any other me- thod. A farmer, that has land proper for beans, f}iculd, on no account, avoid giving a particular attention to the crop ; for it will prove one of his furcft funds of profit. By means of beans, he may be able to banifh the unprofitable cuftom of fallowing ; for a crop of beans, rifing in fingle rows on three feet ridges, or double rows at one foot on four feet ridges, gives fo good an opportunity for plough- ing the intervals, and alio admits hand- hoeing the rows, that the land may be cleaned as well as any fallow, and the crop fucceeded by corn; but, if the foil is in fuch terrible order, that this culture is infufficient to clean it, then let a fe- cond crop of drilled beans fucceed, which will be very profitable husbandry, and cannot fail of bringing it into garden order. Whenever beans arc cultivated with this view of fubftituting them in the room of a fallow, let the farmer abfo- lutely determine on drilling them, fo as to KALENDAR. 17 to admit the plough between the rows ; for no hand work will clean and pulve- rize the land fufliciently for this pur- pofe, at leaft without an expence too great for the object. If the fpirited huf- bandman calculates the expence of a fummcr fallow, and alfo the account of a drilled bean crop, he will find the ne- ceflity of this culture. Beans do very well on loams, and on lighter ones than commonly imagined ; but on light gravels, fands, &c. more profitable crops may be frbfti Luted, Let the farmer remember the general maxim in his til- lage for beans this month, never to allow his ploughs to ftir while the land is wet : if his horfes poach at all, or his ploughs do not go clean through the land, he will lofe, or at leaft greatly damage his crop. Two bufhels of feed per acre fown, and fix pecks drilled in equally-diftant rows, three feet afunder, are fufficient quan- tities. -S THE FARMERS BLACK OATS. THIS month is the proper feafon for fowing black oats : the land mould be ploughed firft, and the feed harrowed in. Four bufhels per acre are a proper portion of feed, in rich foils ; but five or fix do better on poorer ones. They fuit belt, on turf land ploughed up in the winter, and left till this time for harrow-? ing in, which is a profitable hufbandry, as it finds employment for the ploughs throughout winter. The farmers ufu^ ally fow them after other crops of corn, but that practice is always to be con- demned : they likewife plough but once for them ; on the contrary, I fuppofe the land to have been ploughed in the pre- ceding autumn. They follow beans or pcafe properly, or any ameliorating crop of roots, (See. Suppoling the land too wet to plough, thev cannot be fown this month- j CALENDAR. 29 month ; but, if your foil and the feafon will allow, never delay getting them into the ground : for early fowings of all hardy crops, when the land is dry enough, are of great importance, and many times more than fufficient to ba- lance other very expenfive circumftances* HOG PEASE, THIS is alfo the feafon for fowing the hardy forts of peafe. The land mould have been ploughed in autumn, and again at fowing ; if the foil is light and porous, turn them in by the plough ; but on other lands it has been found more advantageous to plough firft, and then harrow them in. A farmer, defirous of keeping his land always in good and dean order, mould, in the arrangement of his crops, take great care not to be too free with wheat, barley, and oats, which are all exhaufting plants : he mould fow 36 THE FARMERS fow beans and pcafe enough, becaufc they are ameliorating ones, and admit hand-hoeing to kill the weeds. In thofe fields, in which the common hufband- men fow oats or barley, after wheat, or each other, let the good cultivator fub- ftitute peafe or beans, or fome other ame- liorating crop, which will pay him better than corn, under fuch circumftances, and at the fame time keep his land clean. Peafe may be fown, like black oats, on turf ploughed up in the winter, harrowed in. In fome parts, they dibble them iii with an iron, which makes three or four holes at once ; by which means a bufhel does for an acre of land : whereas, if they are fown, it requires two bufhels* I muft in general remark, on the cul- ture of peafe, that the farmers are too apt to fow this pulfe when the land will yield nothing elfe. They have a pro- verb among them, which fignifies, that the feafon does as much for peafe as good lmfbandryj and they from thence take care, KALENDAR. 3 f tare, that good crops fhall be owing to feafon alone. Hence arifes the general idea of peafe being the moft uncertain crop of all others. All this is owing merely to their being fcarcely ever fown on land that is in good order. Let the good hufbandman lay it down as & maxim, that he mould fow no crop on land that is not in good order : he mould never fow oats, peafe, or beans, on land, that is not in order for barley — not re* fpecting the fine tilth at the time of fow- ing, but the foil's being in good heart, and clear of weeds. But I would not here be underftood to rank all thefe crops together ; becaufe beans and peafe will admit of cleaning while they grow, whereas corn will not, to any profit. So that, if a farmer comes to a field, which, his predecefibr has filled with weeds, a horie-hoed crop of beans will be expe- dient, when a barley crop would be ut- terly improper : and, after land has yielded one crop of barley, certainly an- other it THE FARMER"* other fhould not be fown, but one of pulic fubftituted. If thefe ideas are well executed, the pcafc and beans, in every courfe, will find the land in heart enough for barley, the foil will always be cieart, and the crop good, Pcafc, when ma- naged in a fpirited manner, will not have the reputation of being an uncertain crop, which character, I am perfuaded, has been owing to the flovenly conduct of bad farmers* BORDERS. THIS is a proper feafon for bring; the borders of the inclofures into good order : they are generally found to be high, irregular ridges of land, from earth thrown out of ditches, and not carted away, and from the turning of the ploughs and harrows : they are often over-run with bullies and wood, and much land loll. The beft method to be ft ufed KALENDAR. 33 ufed with them, is firft to cut all the wood, and make it into faggots, and then to grub up all the roots, and make them into ftacks ; for which work la- bourers are generally paid by the piece, is. /\d. per hundred faggots, three feet long, and fix a itack of roots, of fixtecn tcct long, three feet high, and three broad, fairly piled clofe together; and which price includes breaking ail the ground a fpit deep. It is proper to agree with them, for raifing the earth into a high ridge, in the middle of the border. In moll countries, this will be done for the 6 s. a ftack ; but, in others, it may coft 2d. extraordinary. The earth then lies ready, and without any obftruction for carting away, either on to the field, to the farm-yard to make a compoft, or for dung to be brought to it* But, in cafe one fpit deep is not fuf- ficient to make the border lower than the furface of the field, which it mould always be, or, at the leaft, on a level with D it, 34 THE FARMERS it, if it is grafs land ; then it will be advifeablc to let the men, who Hub up the roots, leave it level, and let others to dig it to the proper depth, in order to throw the whole, as before, on to a ridge. I have fecn many farms fo over-run with rubbifli, that the borders occupy a confidcrable part of the whole : they then yield a very contemptible profit ; for the product by wood, that is fo open to all cattle, and fpontane- oufly planted, confequcntly confiding three parts in four of brambles and rubbifh of little value, that it is, upon the whole, no object compared w r ith the land loft. When cleared, and dug away to a proper depth, it is ready to be laid down for grafs, fo as to pay rent as well as the reft of the farm. In arable fields, the plough will advance much nearer the hedges than before, and yet leave ipacc enough for a grafs border. Such an object as this may appear trifling to fomc farmers, who have not attended to KALENDAR. 35 to the great lofs of land from this 1 flo- venly practice ; but to good hufband- men, deiirous of making the moft of every part of their farms, it will not appear in Co low a light. WOOD & THIS month, as well as the pre- ceding, is a good feafon for felling under- wood; in which work, and the con- verting the product to the befl profit, lies much judgment. When a farmer has taken a farm, that has a wood in it, he mould confider well which is the moft advantageous ufe to put it to. In fome countries, hoop fluff pays bell: ; in fome, hop-poles are, of all other articles, the moft profitable ; in others, faggot wood of various forts. In fome fituations, bulhes, loofe or tied in faggots, are particularly valuable. In many parts, nothing in a wood pays (o well as hur-\ D 2 dies. $6 THE FARMER'S dies. Whatever anfwers beft, the far- mer fhould apply his wood to, and fub- jecl Iiis management of it to fuch clianges as a variation in demand may occafioh. This may appear fu peril u- ous advice to old farmers ; but there are many young ones that want reminding how and then of fuch circumftances. BARLEY, 1 T is now a proper time to examine fuch of your turnip fields as are finifhed. whether drawn, or fed on the land. If they will break up in a pretty crumbling, mellow ftnte, it will be advifeable to leave them till the next month, and then plough and fow ; but, if you find that the land will not, with one ploughing, be fine enough for this grain, then ef- fectual care fhould be taken not to lofe a dry feafon for giving it the firft til- lage this month, otherwife it will be n too late. KALENDAR. 37 CARROTS. THIS crop is of vaft importance to the farmers, who have fpirit enough to cultivate it. It is not merely book hus- bandry, but actually common in fome parts of this kingdom. March is the proper feafon for fowing it ; but, on fome foils, part of the preparation muft be made this month. I fuppofe the land ploughed as deep as poffible in Oflober : if, on examining it, there is any reafon to expect it will be deficient in finenefs on fowing, let it receive a common ploughing, in dry weather, this month, which can fcarcely fail of enfuring a good tilth the enfuing one. The foil proper for carrots being dry gravels, fands, or loams, you may probably be able to plough them this month. This tillage will not be neceffary, if the land bids fair to work fine in March. Let 4 D 3 me 38 THE FARMERS me here remark further, that, in cafe the land is very mellow, and in good order enough to harrow on this month's tillage, you fliould by no means omit to fow upon this ploughing, and harrow in the feed ; for although March is the common feafon, yet the uncertainties of weather are fuch, that the ftate of the land, in moft cafes, requires a greater attention than the name of the month ; and carrot feed, let the weather be ever fo fevere, will take no harm : it may be fown without danger in November ; and, in cafe March turns out very wet, and your fowing is driven into Aprils it is twenty to one but the crop fuffers. CABBAGES. THE fields, deligncd for cabbages in April ox May, and ploughed in October on to the ridge, fliould this month, if th,c weather will, admit 1 , receive an earth, reverfing KALENDAR. 39 reverfing the ridges, but not ftirring flat. This will have good effects in pulve- rizing the foil, which it may be fup- poied to want, as it confifts only of ftub- bles turned up in autumn. This is a point that mould be attended to ; for cabbages are always to be confidered as a fallow, in which light their impor- tance muft appear fufficicntly great. As this tillage is the firft that marks the land for the crop, (all ftubbles being ploughed in autumn, for whatever crops defigned) it will be proper here to fpeak more particularly of the preparation and delignof the culture. Some late authors have publifhed fuch extreme fatisfa&ory experiments on cab- bages, as food for cattle, that it would be unpardonable to pafs over the article in this work;. They are faid to flourifh to very great profit on all clays and good c loams, and to have the particular pro- perty of enabling the farmers of clays and wet loams, to winter more cattle D 4 than 40 THE FARMERS than thofe of lighter lands can effect, by means of that excellent root, the turnip. The great evil of clay faVms ufe'd to be the want of green winter food ; which confined them in their flocks to hay alone, and confequently prevented their reaping thofe extended articles of profit, that arrfe from numerous heads of cattle : and befides the immediate benefit from the ca ! . tie, they loft alfo the opportunity of railing large quantities of dung, which never can be effected {o well as by keep- ing cattle in winter. But all thefe evils are by the cabbage culture remedied, and the clay farmers put in poffeffion even of a fupcriority over the turnip ones. If the difference between a fummer fallow year on clay, and a turnip fallow on light land, be considered, the impor- tance of this new difcovery will appear fufiiciently clear. Thirty millings an acre expence, of the firft, are not an ex- aggerated calculation; but all is faved on the turnip land, perhaps with profit; and KALENDAR. 41 and the barley, that follows the turnips, is probably as good, or nearly fo, as that which fucceeds the fummer fallow clay. Suppofmg the following clover and wheat equal in both, according to foil, ftill there remains a great fuperU ority in the article manure ; for all that is raifed by the confumption of the tur^ nip crop is fo much fuperiority to the clay foil. But reverfe the medal : fup- pofe cabbages to be introduced on the clay, and the fcene is totally changed: that crop will far exceed the turnips ? yield much more profit, and enable the farmer to make a great deal more ma- nure : for thefe reafons, the recommen- dations cabbages have lately had, appear to be extremely well founded ; and con- fequently thofe farmers, who pofTefs the proper foils, cannot determine too foon to enter on the cultivation. But there is another circumftance at- tending fome forts of cabbages, which make Ut TH'iE IARMER's make them highly advifeable on all farms, which is their lafling for fheep feed quite through the fpring : the Scotch cabbage, turnip cabbage, cabbage turnip, and green hoorcole, come into perfec- tion the beginning of April, and laft ex- tremely well to the middle of May, the mofl pinching fix weeks in the whole year. Turnips will do no fuch thing; confequently thole farmers, who poilcis turnip foils, fhould, on no account, flight the culture of cabbages for this purpofc. WATER-FURROWING. OBSERVE well all new-ploughed lands, to cut watcr-furvows through them, as fodri as the fields arc finiihrd. Saving a trifle of money in the omifTion of fuch a neceflary work, often hazards a crop, and is hire greatly to damage it. In mal:ing them, have a furc eye to the defecnts KALENDAR. 43 deicents and variations of the furface, fo that no water can lodge in any parts, however wet the weather. Look alio to the old water-furrows in the wheat fields, and thofe in the fallows ploughed at autumn. If they filled at any places, by the crumbling in of the moulds after frofts, or by the paffage of moles, or other accidents, let them be cleaned out : too much attention cannot be given to keep your lands quite free from ftagnant water. MANURE GRASS-LANDS. THIS is the proper feafon for lay- ing on feveral forts of manure, fuch as foot, coal-afhes, wood-allies, lime, malt- duft, &c. and in general thofe that are fpread in too fmall quantities to require a whole Winter's rains to wafh them in. The ufe of thefe manures, and other light dfcfling* in February, are very beneficial y but, 44 THE FARMER'S but, throughout the management of pmv chafed manures, you mult form ionic experiments for a year or two, befort you extend the practice; to ice which, at a given price, will fuit your land beft. Without this precaution, you may pro- bably expend large funis of money to very little purpofe. Nor would I advife you to truft to the mere appearance of the effect foon after the manuring ; for fome of them, particularly foot and malt- duft, will fhew themfelves the firft heavy fhowers, in a finer green than the reft of the field ; but your proof of it does not arife from fine greens, but weight of hay ; and I have myfelf experienced, that the latter is not always an attendant on the former. Mark out contiguous half acres, calculate the prices of your manures, and fpread on each piece a. Separate one ; all to the amount of : an acre, for inftance. At hay-time, weigh the crops ; you will then know which manure, at the given prices, fates vour KALENDAR. 45 your foil belt. This knowledge -will prove true experience, and a very dif- ferent guide from proverbs or random ideas. MANURE GREEN WHEATS. THIS is likewife the feafon for fpreading fuperficial dreffings on the green wheats, fuch as foot, afhes, malt* duft, pigeons dung, poultry dung, rab- bits dung, &c. &c. and many other forts in the neighbourhood of great cities. This is very good hufbandry ; but the profit depends- on the expences. I mall venture to recommend your trying them in fmall, (half an acre, for inftance* to each) before you extend the pra&ice to whole fields, efpecially thofe which are nor dungs. As to the latter, provided the prices be not extravagant, there can. be no doubt of their anfwering on all. foils. Whenever a farmer has the choice of 4$ THE FARMERS of manures, neve* let him hefitate about which to take : he may lay it down as a maxim, thai dungs of all forts are ex- cellent : other manures may be tlie iame, but they are not lb univerial re- fpecting foils. FARM YARD. THROUGHOUT this month, at- tend well to the farm-yard, and all the buildings where cattle are kept : fee that every place is kept conftantly littered, fo that every thing is clean ; and, if the flock of litter laid in in autumn will not laft, it is time now, that you agree with fome neighbours for a weekly fupply of refufe flraw or Hubble : at all events, do not let there ever be a want of litter, cither in the flails or the yard; for this is the only way of railing large quanti- ties of dung at a cheap rate. KALENDAR. 47 PLANT WILLOWS, &c. I do not, in this Kalendar, mean to treat of the planting trees, as that is a bufinefs rather of landlords and gentle- men, than farmers.; but, with the quick-growing aquatics, the cafe is dif- ferent. If any part of the fences of the farm are fituated in low, wet, or boggy- places, it is a chance if thorns profper well. The beft method of repairing them is to plant trunchions of willow, fallow, alder, &c. &c. for hedge-ftakes, and alfo along the bank for plafhing down after- wards, which will enfure the tenant a great plenty of firing ; and in fuch fitu- ations, and wafte fpots that cannot well be better improved, it will anfwer ex- tremely well to him, to fet longer trun- chions for pollard trees, they will repay the expence with great profit. 4$ THE FARMER'S TARES. THIS is a proper feafon for fowing tares, called, in fome places, vetches, fetches, th etches, &c. The land I fup- j)oie flirred in autumn : the firft feafon in this month, tha* is dry enough, plough the land again, and harrow in three buihels an acre of feed. I fuppofe them dcfigned for making hay, or feed- ing green ; but, if they are for a crop of feed, two buihels will be fufficient. Tares for hay make a moil excellent fallow year: they are mown before they draw, or exhauft the land at all, and their ex- treme luxuriancy and thick made to mellow and loofen the foil, and kill all weeds, that, if the crop is good, and the feed ibv/n not later than February, you will have a very good chance for a crop or turnips after them, on one earth ; but, without fuch luck, this hufbandry is far KALENDAR. 49 far beyond fowing two crops of corn running. If a farmer thinks of lowing barley after wheat, barley, or oats, or oats after either, let him throw a crop of tares for hay between two of corn, and he will be fure to reap the benefit of it. They will give him, on middling land, from a ton and half to two tons and an half of hay per acre, which, with their clean- ing and ameliorating nature, will be found to far exceed any fecond crop of corn on the fame land. WATER MEADOWS. THIS work is much neglected in England^ and yet it is really important. Wherever a meadow or pafture is fo fitu- ated, that water cannot be brought on it from higher grounds, whether by means of a river, ditches, trenches, &c* &c. it mould by all means be done, though fome expence were requifite to E erfec} 50 THE FARMERS cfFccl it. It will prove much the cheapeft of manuring ; and, as it will be in your power, for molt of the winter months, and executed annually, it will prove not lefs effectual than any other manuring. In cai'e the water lodges in iwamps or flat places, trendies mull be cut through them, about a fpit deep, and a (pit and a half wide, to carry it off; becaufe it ihqulcl only run over the grafs, but not remain on it. Wherever your water is, whether in river, ditch, or trench, it mould be conducted over the grafs, at various places, fo as to water as much of it as poflible. Suppofe there is a ditch along the higheft fide of the field, the eaficfr management is to bring the water into that ditch, and then, by various outlets, flow it over the mea- dow. If the quantity is fmall, from one outlet at a timej flopping the reft. I have many times obferved running ditches, that might be let on to grafs-lands, with- out i of Horticulture. ] KALENDAR. 51 out the farmer's ever thinking of any inch matter ; but the benefit of the prac- tice is undoubted. POTATOES. THIS root is one of the mofl pro* fitable crops the farmer can cultivate ; nor does the advantage of it depend on markets for felling them : for they will pay a beneficial price, given to cattle of various forts, particularly hogs. In Ire- land they feed their cows on them to great profit. The land, defigned for potatoes, I fuppofe to have been ploughed in autumn : they are to be planted the beginning of next month ; and, as they affect a good tilth, it will be advifeable to plough the land this month, prepa- ratory to the planting earth, provided the weather be dry enough : but in this, as well as for all other crops, be fure to avoid ever going on with your ploughs while the foil is at all wet. E 2 As 52 THE FARMER'S As this tillage marks the land defigned for this crop, it is proper to caution thofe farmers, who are unacquainted with the culture, againft applying too much land to it. If you have a great plenty of dung at command, you may enter largely into this hufbandry ; but determine to plant no more land than you can manure at the rate of 25 or 30 large loads per acre ; for one acre, well cultivated, will pay you better than five, or even tew? but indifferently managed. KALENDAR. 53 MARCH. BARLEY. THIS is the proper month for get- ting all the feed barley into the ground. Crops, later fown, may be very beneficial ; but, if all circumftances were equal, the March-{orwn would be fupe- rior to any later feafons, which is the only comparative point of confequence. This grain is fown after various prepa- rations ; turnips are the mod. common ; which root will not laft for feeding any cattle, with propriety, upon the average of feafons, longer than this month : io that the turnip-land barley muft be fown on one earth, or the feafon abfolutely E 3 loft; 54 THE FARMER'S r April and May fowings arc al- 6 inferior. I am not here afferting, that April is a month quite improper for fowing barley : I know the contrary from experience ; but I will venture to afTcrt, that if foil, ploughings, manuring, water- furrowing, &c. &c. are equal, a March fowing will exceed an April one, on an of feveral years, by fix bufhels in the crop. Saying, therefore, that barlics in certain places, fown in April and May, yield great crops, is faying nothing, unlets you add, at the fame time, the parallel fuccefs of other crops fown in March. Neither do I venture to insinuate, that all March-town crops are to be fuccefsful : one indifpenfable ne- ceffary in fowing mod crops, but barley in particular, i9 the land being quite dry. March may pafs quite away, without a fmgle ploughing feafon, in the whole month, for wet lands. In fuch a cafe, I certainly cannot miftake fo greatly, as Ivilc the fowing barley; but ftill this KALENDAR. s $ this is not in reference to a particular practice, but to a general maxim in huf- bandry. You ought never to fuffer your ploughs to work, if the land is wet ; confequently, advice to fow barley m March mull always be under the pro- viso, that the land is dry enough to plough. Turnip land, not cleared till this month, can only receive one ploughing, and have the feed harrowed in : if more earths are given, the fowing time will be driven much too late. In this cafe, on many foils, the land will not be turned up in fine order : Six bufhels mould then be fown on each acre of land, un- lefs the fertility is great, when five will do. Summer-land barley, on clay, or other heavy foils, fhould always be fown on one earth, in the firft dry, ploughing feafon, whether in February or March, In fome clay countries, the farmers have an exceeding good barley culture : they fummer fallow their land, anld hj it up E 4 on 56 THE FARMER'S on three-feet ridges, well water-furrowed for the winter. In a hard froft, they Carry on their dung, and leave it in heaps till fowing time, when they fpread be- fore the ploughs : this is incomparable good hufbandry, and can never fail of good crops. It is conducted, upon the fame principle, upon beans, peafc, tare, potatoe, or carrot land : all which crops are taken up in autumn, and the land ploughed after them, on to the ridge, and well water-furrowed, ready for the fpring-fowing. The great point is, to have the foil, previous to the crop, in fuch good order, that no other fpring tillage may be neceflary than the feed- earth. In fuch hufbandry, there can be no fear of having good crops, nor is it practifed any where, where bad ones are reaped. Upon lands thus managed, &ur bufhels of feed per acre, if the foil is rich, are fufficient ; and to harrow in the whole, the beft way of covering it. Much the moft profitable way of cul- tivating KALENDAR. 57 tivating barley, is to throw it into a re- gular courfe, preparatory to the clover. For inftance : 1. Turnips. 2. Barley. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. Or, 1. Cabbages. 2. Barley. 3.£lover. 4. Wheat. Another: 1. Fallow. 2. Barley. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. Whatever variations may arife in the crops, ftill barley muft always follow either an ameliorating crop, or a fallow, and in all cafes be followed by clover. In many parts of the kingdom, unac- quainted with clover, this latter reafon- ing may appear bad ; but that can only arife from falfe ideas of the ufe of clover. Let good grafs lands be ever fo plentiful, they will in no cafe be found to preclude the ufe of clover. Farmers, even on grafs farms, that know not what to do with large crops of clover, I will venture to pronounce unworthy the name of far- mers. No man, that has money in his pocket, can be at a lofs to know how to fdifpofe of any fort of food for cattle. What would any man wifh to follow a barley THE FARM Eft' barley crop ? No fort of corn can fuc- ceed, according to the plained princi- ples of common good hujhandry. To fubftitute pulfe inficad of clover, is cer- tainly bad management; for the grafs will prove as beneficial as either beans, peafe, or fares), and it will more profitably prepare for wheat. That grain, fown upon a clover lay, muft always be on one earth, which is a moll favourable circumftince : and the propriety of keep- ing the land under the clover two, three, or four years, during all which time the crops will be extreme' y line, is another very flrong argument The mere amount ri the clover crops is not the only en- quiry ; the char profit of them is the great objec"! ; and gnils, in that refpecl, is of peculiar advantage to the farmer, . whatever his foil ; for clover, as long . it lads, will pay a much greater profit, ch::ir <\ <\penccs, than any crop of corn the firmer can ftibftttute, which, with the advantage iking it up lor com, . KALENDAR. 59 cither wheat or oats, renders the clover hufbandry an abfolute appendage to that of barley. In refpett to the management at Tow- ing, there are two methods that are very different : the one is to harrow in the feed with, or upon, the barley feed ; the other, to fow it before the roller, after the barley is up. The reafon of the latter practice has been owing, I appre- hend, to the barley crops in wet feafons fuffering a good deal from the luxuriant growth of the clover. I have had fe- veral fields of barley half fpciled by clover, fown with the corn. This reafon is a very good one in many fituations ; but I think, with proper mana^ment, the evil might be eafily remedied, I fhould propofe the crop to be mown for hay, as foon as the barley began to ear: the great quantity of clover mong it, which there mull be to cndiinrer the crop, would, with the barley, :; .r.'ze an admirable one of hay, and I apprehend 3 ny 6o THE FARMERS fully equal in value to the amount of a good barley one. Farmers are too apt to view corn, facked up in market, as the only object of hufbandry, becaufe it is mod faleable : they would act much wifer, if they efteemed the food of cattle as equally advantageous. Corn they prefer to beef, merely becaufe it does not require fo much flock in hand ; but the difference between thefe productions, in other refpects, is very great : for what companion can be drawn between crops that exhauft the foil, and fill it with weeds, and others (the food of cattle) that ameliorate and clean it ? OATS. WHITE oats mould now be fown in preference to any othei feafon ; and, in the general conduct of them, the farmer mould, by all means, avoid the common error of fowing them after other corn KALENDAR. 61 corn crops, by which they exhauft and ruin their land. They fhould always receive the fame preparation as barley ; nor ought a good hufbandman to think of their not paying him as well for fuch attention as that crop. It is a very mis- taken idea, to fuppofe it more profitable to fow barley on land in good order than oats. I am confident, from divers ex- periments, that oats will always equal, and, in many cafes, exceed barley. The fuperior quantity of the produce will ever be found to more than anfwer the inferiority of the price. What good reafons are to be offered for fowing oats on land in fuch bad or- der, that barley is not to be ventured in, I know not : I have never heard any fatisfactory ones. The common argu- ment is their hardinefs, which will give you a middling crop, about fufHcient to pay expences, and leave a trifling profit, when no other crop will do the like; but this is only proving them to be af- I fiftants 6z THE FARMERS fiftants of bad hufbandry ; nor is fuch a paltry profit, granting falfe premifes, (for I am well perfuaded, that common oat crops, among bad farmers, are but fb much lois) an object that ever ought to influence good hufbandmen. Why mould a good farmer be at all folicitous to gain 10 s. an acre profit by oats after bailey, &c. ? Suppofe his courfe to be: i. Turnips. 2. Barley. 3. Oats. Or, 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Oats. In either of thefe courfes, or in any other, where the oats follow another crop of corn, the profit of them muft be very trifling. What comparifon with fowing clover with the barley, which will pay far more profit, and at the fame time prepare, in the bed manner, for that moft beneficial crop, wheat ? What but a fallow, or a fallow crop, can fucceed the oats ? How unprofitable, compared to the clover f) ftem ! For thefe reaibns, I cannot but ftrongly recommend to all farmers, that they mould KALENDAR. 63 ihouldconfideroats and barley quite in the fame light, and, never fow the one", unlefs they know their land to be in proper order for the other : to low them after a fallow crop, and clover with them, in the fame manner as with barley. Upon rich lands, four or live buihels per acre are the proper quantity of feed oats ; but, on weaker foils, fix or {even mould be town. PEASE. ■ c ,*yHIS month is the proper ieafon for fowing all forts of peafe, that were not fown in February ; nor is it proper to delay any of them later, if the wea- ther now iuits. White peafe ihould be fown laft, and on light land ; for they do not fucceed well en heavy or wet clays. There are fcarcely any foils, that do not fuit fome pea or other : ftiff clays do very well for the hardier hog-peafe, and 64 THE FARMER'S and all lighter loams, gravels, chalks, and fands, anfwer well in the tenderer kinds : they are both ploughed and har- rowed in ; which variation fometimes makes a confiderable difference in the crop ; for, if the land is apt to bind, with rain, and the peafe are ploughed in, they fometimes do not rife at -all, not having ftrength to pierce the plaftered furface ; but this evil only attends the very binding foils : on the contrary, when the feed is only harrowed in, if the field is not very well watched, the pigeons and birds will carry away much of it, and fome allowance in the feed fhould be made for it. If land breaks well with the harrow, it is beft to harrow in on all, but the very lighted lands ; but on loofe fands, or very light and po- rous foils, or thofe that are extremely dry, it muft certainly be preferable to plough it in, on account of having a greater depth, and being further from the KALENDAR. 6$ the fun, which is apt, in hot fummers, to burn thefe foils up. Sow peafe after corn : they always come in beft after wheat, barley, or oats : generally with good hufbandry after wheat ; becaufe, in a farm truly ordered* barley and oats mould ever have clover fown with them. I can hardly fuppofe a fituation* where this is not the right management : they come very properly into fuch courfes as thefe : I . Turnips* 2. Barley. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. 5. Peafe. Or, 1. Cabbages. 2. Oats. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. 5. Peafe. Whenever wheat fucceeds clover, you may throw in a crop of peafe after it, if it fuits you better than to come again to turnips* cabbages, or beans, the firft of the courfe. 66 THE FARMERS DRILLED PEASE. THIS pulle is, in fome places, drilled, which is a very good method, and by no means to be condemned lb generally, as moll farmers do all crops that are fown by a drill-plough. The great ufe of drilling peafe is the rendering it fo much eafier to hand-hoe them. Good farmers, whatever their foil, are always defirous of getting the hand-hoe into as many crops as poffible, and few pay better for it than peafe ; but, when promifcuoufly fown, the work is difficult and expenfive to perform well ; whereas, if they are drilled in equally-diftant rows, one foot, or nine inches afunder, the hoeing is as regular w T ork as can be conceived : it will be executed much eaiicr, better, and cheaper, and the crop be confequently fuperior. Another ad- vantage in this method is the faving of feed; KALENDAR. 67 feed ; for a bufliel, or a bufhel and half lefs feed, will do thus than in broad- caft fowing. Here, therefore, is a cafe, in which drilling is really profitable, and will exceed the common hufbandiy. The point of admitting the hand-hoes better is a very important one ; for that operation, given while the crop is quite young, checks the weeds fo much at the fame time that the crop is forwarded, that the tendrils join the fooner, and much the ftronger for it ; and, confe- quently, the good effect of a thick, lux- uriant crop, gained in a much completer degree. But let the farmer, when he agrees to ufe the drill-plough for this work, not be perfuaded to change his purpofe of hand-hoeing, in order to in- troduce a horfe-hoe in wider intervals ; that is, to fow two or three rows equally diftant, and then, paffmg a fpace of two or three feet, drill a frefh fyftem of rows, the intervals for ploughing. This is more complex hufbandry, and will F 2 not 68 THE FARMER'S not anfwer fo well ; for the peafe arc very apt to fall into the intervals, and be damaged by the horfe and plough : an evil that has very bad confequences. The profitable drilling, therefore, re- quires a plough, that will fow feveral rows equally diftant at once : the greater the number, the quicker the work is done. TARES. I F the weather in February did not allow your fowing tares, or at leaft all your crop, the work mull not be delayed longer than March^ or the crop will fuffer. The beft way is, to plough the land flat, or on broad lands, and harrow in the feed : but obferve well that the foil is dry before you go on with your ploughs ; which is an univerfal rule, that ought never to be deviated from. KALENDAR. 69 CARROTS. THIS is the feaion for fowing car- rots : February ', if the weather is un- ufually dry, is preferable ; but, upon an average of feafons, the work will not be expedient till March. Plough the land in the common manner, but flat, and fow broad-caft about four pounds of feed to an acre, and harrow it in at thrice. If the weather is unufually wet, you may be prevented from getting on to the land ; but, if poffible, delay it no longer. The proper foil fhould not be miftaken through common notions, nor confined to a compafs much within the reality. It is a general idea, that no- thing but fands will do for carrots ; but this is a moil miftaken notion : the befl foil in the world for them is a fandy loam, rather light, but moift, of a great depth ; in which you will find very little dif-* F 3 ficulty 7 o THE FARMER'S ficulty in ploughing to the very beam of your plough ; and all the foil you bring up of the fame kind, and as fit for vegetation as the furface. This fandy loam, with thefe properties, fhould in general yield good crops of all forts : the black finds the beft. But, at the fame time that I mention this fort, as of all other foils the mod defirable, ftill I defire to aid, that the crop will thrive to moft noble profit on heavy loams, but not clays ; good wheat loams, for in- ftanee, of the gravelly kinds, thatploi'^h pretty eafy. At iirft fight, fi\rh might perhaps be thought too ftifF; but- the truth is, no kind of land will yield larger carrots; perhaps the grofs -a ops will be as large as on the beft fands : but then the expences will run higher in cleaning, &c. I have known carrots tried on clays, and been made, by dint of tittage and manure, to a-nfwer an them ; but the husbandry is not ad- vifeable. 3 If KALENDAR. 71 If you would command your crops of this root, you mould, before the feed earth, manure the land with twenty- five or thirty loads of dung per acre, pretty, rotten : plough it in, and then cover the feed by harrowing. Such a conduct: will enfure very coniiderable crops, and pay better for the dung than perhaps any other application whatever. I have heard of dung fpoiling or in- juring carrots, making them grow de- formed, giving them the canker, and making them ill tafted ; but I mud re- mark, that I never remember any fuch effect in the many crops I have feen in different places. A farmer's object is to produce as great a quantity as poffible from every acre, and that muft undoubt- edly be by the help of manure. I cannot leave this article, without recommending to all the poffeffors of the lighter fort of lands that have a pretty good depth, to cultivate this ex- cellent root with fpirit ; not to confine it F 4 to 72 THE FARMER'S to a little clofe of an acre or two, but to introduce it, in the courfe of the crops on a farm, regularly, like wheat, barley, turnips, or any other plant. I am con- fident none will pay them better ; and, if they manage it tolerably, not one on the whole farm half fo well : they will find the profit, on an average of foils and feafons, not lefs than ten pounds an acre clear, which will much exceed the ad- vantage of three average crops of wheat, with the great benefit of its proving a remarkable cleanfer, and as ameliorating a crop as any in the world. PARSNIPS. THIS root is recommended by feveral very ingenious writers on hufbandry, as fuperior to the carrot ; but of this tSk lertion I cannot but cxprefs my doubts, if carrots are fown on proper land, and well managed. It is faid, indeed, that 4 parfnips KALENDAR. 73 parfnips will thrive exceedingly well on ftiff clays, and grow on them to a great fize ; but the quantity of manure to effect any fuch growth muft, I mould apprehend, be very great. Whoever are inclined to try them, fhould certainly get the feed into the ground early this month, and treat it according to the beft method of cultivating carrots. On foils that will do for the latter root, parfnips will not be equally advantageous ; but on thofe that are ftiffer, if our accounts are true, they will be a very beneficial crop* POTATOES. MARCH is the beft feafon in the year for planting potatoes. The land I fuppofe to have received its firft tillage in autumn ; and, if it was inclinable to be rough, to have had a fecond plough- ing in February, The firft dry feafon in this month, it fhould be ftirred again flat, 74 THE FARMED flat, turning In the manure of whatever kind : ti is rotten farm-vard dun?:: and die more ihat is laid on the bcun , iiiJcrj the foil be very ri< h. Upon an e 6f lands, lefs mould not be laid than twenty-five or thirty large loads per acre, which mould be fpread equally, that it may plough in well. As foon as the furface is harrowed fmooth, the> planting mould be begun, which is beft performed in this manner : a man holds a triangular dibble in his hands, which' has three points, and a place for him to fet his foot on it, to ftrike it into the earth : it fo makes three holes at a time, to receive the fets. A boy follows him with them, and drops one into each hole. After this, the land is harrowed twice or thrice, and the bufinefs is done. They are in this method fet promifcu- oully, at from nine inches to one foot .ifundcr : the Work is done quickly, and is not expensive. Another way is to lay them in furrows after the plough, which is KALENDAR. 75 is lefs expend ve, but never fo well done : they are not planted deep enough, nor are the fets well covered without a very minute attention to the ploughs. In the promifcuous way, from fifteen to twenty bufhels of potatoes are wanting to fet an acre. POTATOES ON. GRASS. GRASS-LAND is often broken up for' a cropr of 'potatoes, and by mofl people preferred to any other : the me- thods are,, firft, to dung it moderately, fifteen or twenty loads per acre ; then to dig up the turf,- and work in the dung at the fame time, and dibble, in the fets, in the way before mentioned. You frarcely ever fail of great crops in this method. Another is called the lazy-bed Way: you dung the grafs as before, and mark it into beds five feet wide, with narrow flips between them, two feet wide : 76 THE FARMERS wide : you then dung the beds about fifteen loads per acre ; on the dung you lay the potatoe flices, after which the turf is dug thinly up in the two-feet intervals, and laid on the fets, which, with another fpit, and the loofe mould, completes the covering. This is a good method, but not equal to digging the whole ground, on account of its being left whole for the fucceeding crop ; but the crop of potatoes is generally good : for, bcfides the dung, they have the turf below to fpread upon, and are partly covered with that from the trenches ; fo that they lie hollow, and in a rich bed. POTATOES ON BORDERS. IF you have any rough borders of fields, that were grubbed up to clear away roots and rubbifh the preceding winter, it is very good hufbandry to dig them regularly the beginning of this months KALENDAR. 77 month, and dibble them with potatoe lets, by which means you are fure of getting a beneficial crop ; for fuch places are generally very fertile, from the rot- ting of leaves and wood ; and they will be left ready in autumn for carrying the earth on to the land, in order to level the border, and lay it down to grafs. Such points as thefe are much neglected by the generality of common farmers, and yet the profit of them cannot be dis- puted : they are much too fearful of every little expence out of the ufual road, and think every milling fo laid out is lofs. When fome rich earth is thrown out of ditches, or mud out of ponds, it is very often left long enough for yielding a potatoe crop, which either will do in good perfection, but without ever being thought of for that purpofe. Thefe are objects, that a diligent atten- tive man mould always have in his eye, and he will afluredly find the profit of them. 7 8 THE FARMERS POTATOES FOR HORSE- HOEING. THE new hufbandry has been much recommended for the culture of potatoes, and there have been many inftances of great crops gained in this manner. The practice of it is various ; but, in what- ever manner, the land mould be ploughed on to ridges for them, according to the rows intended. They have been tried in equally-diftant fingle rows, at two, three, four, and live feet : in double tows, at one foot, on four-feet ridges ; the fame on five-feet ridges, and three rows on live-feet ridges. Thcfe me- thods may moft of them have fucceeded ; but the wide diftances between the fingle rows certainly loie too much land. If equally-diftant rows were ufed, three feet mull be preferable to the others; double rows on four feet, I fhould pre- fer, KALENDAR. 79 fer, and treble on live feet : in which methods you have the advantage of the horfe-hoeing culture, without lofing much room. Equally-diftant, at two feet, with a neat horfe-hoe that turned no furrow, only cut the furface of the ground, would probably be very fuc- cefsful. The principle of introducing the horfe-hoe is to lave fome of the ex- pence of hand-hoeing, and at the fame time to make the crop flourifh better. The advocates for this hufoandry ac- knowledge, that there are more plants in the old method ; but they affert, that the tillage of the plough is fo much more effectual than that of the hand-hoe, and the admiffion of air among the plants fo much freer, that the lofs of number is more than made up in the gain of lize. It has been faid, however, that horfe- hoeing is fo effectual, that there is no occafion for dung with it ; but let all good farmers be very fufpicious of fuch affertions. If they give up the benefits of 8o THE FARMER'S of rich manurings for any purpofe {o imaginary, they will certainly repent it. Potatoes may, in certain foils, be culti- vated to profit without dung, but never equally ; and on mofl lands it is abfo- lutely requiiite. CABBAGES. THERE are two principal feafons for planting cabbage crops, defigned for cattle, viz. the latter end of April and the beginning of May y and about Mid- fummer. The land for both I fuppofe ploughed the firft time at Michaelmas : if February was very favourable for til- lage, another earth was then given, if the teams had leifure for it. Thofe fields that were to be planted in April and May mull, undoubtedly, be ploughed again in March, Thefe ftirrings are not to be flat, but the land kept on the ridge by reverfing. If you have as much time KALENDAR. 81 time this month to fpare from feed earths (which are ever the moft impor- tant part of tillage) as you will have in Aprils it will be alfo advifeable to piough thofe lands that are for the Midjwuner crop : by which means you will be fure to gain a fine tilth late in fpring, which is the beft method of deftroying feed weeds. The beginning of this month is the proper time for fowing the feed : for this purpofe you muft proportion the feed, and feed-bed, to the intended quantity of your crops. A good rule, according to the account we have of this culture, is to fow one pound of feed to every four acres of land intended to be cropped. For a feed-bed, make choice of a rich piece of land fummer fallowed, and dunged with rotten fluff. If you defign ten acres of cabbages, let the fpace be a rood : there is no occalion for any fpade and rake work ; the plough and hirrow will do to the full as well. As to G the Si THE FARMER'S the forts of cabbages, it is advifeable to have the great Scotch, the turnip cab- bage, and the green boorcole ; and if your ftock is various, as in general, you fhould allot the Scotch to hearts and cows, and for fheep to the middle of April, and the turnip cabbage and boor- cole for fheep alone, from the middle of April to the middle of May ; by which means you will have no trouble in pro- viding for your cattle throughout the winter : the point, of all others, which has moft perplexed our farmers. But I fhould obferve, that the cabbages, planted out in April and May, muft be the Scotch alone, and they are to take the cattle from grafs, and carry them through till January. The directions given above, for fowing in this month, are relative only to the crop tranfplanted into the field at Midfummer. Calendar. & 3 TURNIP FALLOW. THE land defigned for turnips, I fuppofe to have been ploughed from a ftubble at Michaelmas ; in this month it ihould receive the fecond earth, which is very neceflary, that you may, by har- rowing well, or by another flirring in Aprils if the land is ftubborn, be able to make it fo fine, as to enfure a thick crop of weeds in May ; a fucceeding plough- ing turns them in, and quite deftroys them. This is a method that is very effectual in deftroying feed weeds, and particularly fuits turnip fallows, as it is a crop that requires a very fine tilth* whether the land be foul or clean. G a 84 THE FARMERS SOWING CLOVER. MARCH is a principal clover fea- fon for fowing with barley or oats, that fucceeded either a fallow or an enriching fallow crop. The proper quantity of feed for an acre of land is twenty pounds. Many farmers fow much lefs ; but it is a very faulty practice. There are two methods of covering it : one by har- rowing, when the barley is fown, and by rolling, when the barley is rolled after it is up : this difference is occafioned by clover harrowed in with the crop of barley, in wet feafons, very often fpoiling it, from a too great luxuriance of growth. In the management of a farmer's crop, he cannot give too much attention to clover. I do not think a better rule can be laid down, than fowing it with all the barley and oats on a farm. More of thofe crops mould not be cultivated than proper KALENDAR. 85 proper to fow with, grafles : if there is more, it mull be from bad hufbandry in fecond cropping. In farms chiefly ara- ble, this neceflity is fo great, that, with a different conduct, a man can expect nothing but loffes. In fuch farms, the dependance for the cattle is on this grafs alone. What, fatal effects, therefore, muft follow a neglect of cultivating a fufficient quantity of it ! The farmei mould confider well the profit of clover, before he fows fpring corn without it : the expences confift in nothing but feed, which fcarcely ever amount to more than five millings an acre. Now, what other crop can he fow, that will coft him fo little ? But the product is as con- liderable, when well managed, as that of any other plant mown for hay : it yields two crops of a great burthen ; and, in the feeding cattle, it much exceeds, Tor horfes, fheep and hogs, any common grafs land. But the great excellency of clover is its cleaning and ameliorating G 3 the 86 THE FARMERS the foil : if the feed is town with a nrft crop of corn, while the land is in good heart, and free from weeds, you may keep it under clover from one to three yc.ars, a:ul then hreak it up, either for wheat or oats on one earth, and be hire of haviiig an extreme rich, as well as clean, crop of either : an' object, con- adoring the low^nefs of the expences, and Qtner circumftances, of very great con- tence. While the land is under clo- ver, it is undoubtedly fallowed only Without the expence of common fallows. Of this fact there cannot be a clearer propf,, than the,. great crops of wheat rained after it on only one earth. Was clpyci; an exhaufhng plant, mould we fee this fo often? If an); wheat crops are pj.ailiarly favourable, and generally iuceefsful to an uncommon decree,, it is the clover-land ones,. . - - Let therefore the good farmer tal^e a refoiution, t no barley or.'oats witfl- ©iit clover". ' If* he rtjHgiouiiy ' follows this maxim, KALENDAR. 87 maxim, and never fows it with a fecond or third crop, it is impoffible his lands iliould be in bad heart or foul. So much of his farm will be under fallow crops, and he will be able to keep fuch con- fiderable flocks of cattle to raife manure at home, that his fields muft always be in excellent heart, very different from thole of his flovenly neighbour, who is eager after nothing but corn. SOWING RAY-GRASS. THIS grafs is very valuable on fe- veral foils ; but the cultivator mould be careful of introducing it on improper land. Mixed with clover, it is of great ufe on moft light foils ; but on heavy, wet loams or clays, it is as pernicious a weed as a farmer can throw on his land. On fands, fandy loams, gravels, or poor gravelly loams, &c. it improves the clover, efpecially when mown for hay : G 4 clover 83 THE FARMERS clover and ray-grafs hay, mown early enough* is equal to any. For feeding, its principal ufe is early in the fpring, when the value is extremely great ; for it is the firft grafs commonly fown by farmers that moots. With good ma- n:. 'ement, you may, in general, com- mand a fine bite for fheep and lambs bv the middle of Slpril, which is gaining a full month on any country in general. If the clover and ray-grafs be fown with a firft crop of corn, the land clean and in good heart, it will be ready for the fheep by the beginning of April. The importance of iuch food is then very great, and mould, on no account, allow of any undiltinguiihing cenfure of this grafs. It is an undoubted fact, that many parts of iLngl.wd would fiiffer infinitely, if the farmers were deprived of it ; and fome of thole parts are among the bell cultivated in the kingdom. Ray-grafs is frequently Town too thin : it is almoft z maxim, that you cannot low grafs-feeds too KALENDAR. 89 too thick. IF it is fown alone, four bufhels an acre will not be too much : if with clover, twelve pounds of the latter, and two bufhels of ray-grafs, will make a good covering. SHEEP. THIS month muft finifh the feeding your fheep on turnips : if they are kept longer on them, the barley or oat crop will be ruined, and but little good re- mits to the fheep ; for the roots, after the fecond branches are run, become hard and fticky : fo that no cattle, unlefs very hungry, will eat them. About the mid- dle of the month, therefore, you mould manage to have the laft of your turnips quite done, and put all your flock to cabbages, which are now in high per- fection. The profit of this management cannot fail of being very great ; for the difference of keeping your fatting fheep, and 9 j THE FARMERS and ewes, and lambs, longer in a food grown very indifferent, -and of which they are tired, or changing them to a freih fort in full .perfection, mull: be pro- digioufly great. At this feafon the flock, whether ewes, lambs, or fatting fheep, muft be kept extremely well : if they are pinched now, all the money before expended will be nearly thrown away. Turnips can no longer, with any propriety, be de- pended upon. If the farmer has not a great breadth of ray-grafs, or fome other grafs, cabbages are his only dependence* and he imi'ftc either poffefs a crop of them ready for this feafon, or fell off his fat- ting fhcjp fooner than he dellres, and flop the growth of his lambs, at a time when thfiy; ought to be half fat. Ey the middle o£ April, indeed, the natural gralTes will afford a final! bite ; but feed- ing them at that feafon is ablnlute ruin to the crop of hay. - - In KALENDAR. 91 In fattening wethers, the great object is to keep from felling till the middle of April: then to begin, and keep killing till the end of May, is the moft profitable conduct; for the price a butcher will then give much exceeds that of two or three months earlier. How advantage- ous, therefore, to have a field or two of cabbages ready to take all the ftock by the middle of March from turnips ; or, if cabbages be the chief crop, to have enough of them to laft till May. In the eating the crop, attention muft be given to the foil : if it is dry enough, they may be eaten on the land much better than turnips ; becau-e they ftand above ground ; but, if the land is .wet, they mould be cut and given the fheep on a fmall grafs field, <)l THE FARMER'S COWS, &c. THROUGHOUT this month, keep your cows, lean and young cattle, clofe to the farm-yards : on no account let them wander over any of your fields. If they even fteal into a grafs field, and it be a forward fpring, fo that they get a mouthful or two of grafs, it will preju- dice them not a little ; for they will not be fo well contented with their dry meat after : befidcs, they poach the grafs, and you lofe much manure ; for thefe reafons, it is very advifeable to have all your yards (I fuppofe water to be in them) locked up, and then it will not depend on the memory of fervants. Keep every place well littered with ftubble, •ftraw, or fern : remember that your omitting this attention will be juft to KALENDAR. 93 fo much mifchief to all the crops of your farm, in the article of manure. At this feafon a farmer, who has weaned any calves, mould obferve, that they are well and regularly attended : they fhould have a fmall yard with fheds to themfelves, and have their bellies full of the refufe leaves of the cabbages given to the milch cows, with whole ones, if they were not fufficient. Young cattle mould be kept well, or they will come to a very poor fize : their dry meat mould be good hay. THE TEAMS. A diligent farmer will now fee to his horfes and oxen performing good days works. In fowing time, he mould not let them work lefs than ten hours ; but jhis he will not be able to effect, if the plough- 94 THE FARMER'S ploughmen have to take care of their horfes. It is belt, to have horfe-keepers, for the mere attendance of the teams : fo that the men, who hold the ploughs, may have nothing to do but the mere ploughing. Let the horfc-kccper have the horfes fed and harneffed ready for the ploughman, to be in the field by fix o'clock : at eleven they mould come home for an hour and a half to dine and bait, during which time the horfe- kecper is in attendance again. At half an hour after twelve they mould go out again, and work till half an hour after live, when the horfe-keeper fhould again take the teams. By this method a pair of horfes, in a well-made plough, will, without any driver, plough an acre and half very eafily ; and no object is more important, than the ploughs doing good days work in the fpring of the year. The confcquence efpecially of making the moft of dry weather in Ma?'cb y is extremely great i KALENDAR. 95 great : one acre ploughed and fowed then may be fairly worth two that are left till the beginning of May. From long obfervation of the value of dry fea- fons for tillage in this month, muft arife the old proverb of, A peck of March dufi is worth a king's ranfGm. WATER-FURROWING. I N all new fown or ploughed lands, as foon as a field is finifhed, let the ploughs, before they leave it, ftrike the water-furrows, and fend in men directly with fpades to fcower them ; that is, throw out the molds. In all lands, fown with clover or graffes among the corn, they fhould be dug a fpit deep, and the molds thrown carefully out. Many farmers are not attentive enough to this point : they only fcower the furrows; but they mould confider how 9 6 THE FARMER'S how long the grafs is on the ground, which probably may be two or three winters ; and confequently it muft be very material to the crop to lie dry all that time, which fcowering alone will not effect. APRIL. KALENDAR. 97 APRIL. BARLEY. THE barley crops not fbwn in March, muft be in the ground by the middle of this month without fail, or a poor crop may be expected. The land I fuppofe to lay as thrown up in the autumn before : fo that, whenever fown, it is on the fpring earth. This fuppofition is abfolutely necelTary ; be- caufe, if there had been previous plough- ings in March, or the end of February \ the feed mould then have been fown ; excepting, however, turnip land, which broke up at firft too rough to fow, which will fometimes happen. The farmers, H in 9« TKE t t,, s in fo be kingdonttj will put ing till the laft v.cck in .ili, ..nd the firft or iecend of , ror the fake of gaining time for giving three fpring earths; but they lofe more by far from late fowing, than they gain by making their land fine. If clover is, as it always ought to be, a principal object, and they- had not the land fine enough before, delays rnuft be made; but ftill they can fcareeiy be owing to any thing but bad hufbandry : for a farmer ihould always have fuch events in view, and give the tillage be-, fore winter, on lands not cropped with plants that fland till the fpring. The utinoft exertions of good hufbandry fhould be made to reconcile jarring cir- cumftances, when they cannot be to- tally prevented. Thefe obfervations on barley are equally applicable to white/ oats. | 3 KALENDAR. 99 WHITE PEASE. THIS is the proper feafon for (ow- ing the white boiling pea. The land ihould be light, either fandy, gravelly, or a light loam, in good tilth, and the feed harrowed in, about three bufhels to an acre. It is a very profitable crop on fuch foils, killing the weeds entirely, if the peafe are luxuriant, and much ame- liorating the land ; but on clays* and heavy wet loams, the culture is by no means advifeable, unlefs thev are well drained, in good heart, and excellently pulverized. BUGK-WHEAT. THE lands defigned for buck-wheat, in May, mould be well tilled this month, ploughed twice, and harrowed three or H 2 four ioo THE FARMER'S four times. It is not neceflary for that grain, but for the graffes you ihould al- ways fow with it, and for that moft im- portant object of making all the feed- weeds grow, in order to turn them down by the following ploughing. This April preparation marks the land for buck- wheat : I mall, therefore, take this op- portunity to advife the farmers in gene- ral to try this crop more. Nineteen parifhes out of twenty, through the kingdom, know it only by name. It has numerous excellencies, perhaps as many, to good farmers, as any other grain or pulfe in ufe. It is of an en- riching nature, having the quality of preparing for wheat, or any other crop : this is a certain fac~t> and cannot be dis- puted. One bufhel fows an acre of land well, which is but a fourth, of the ex- pence of feed barley, You mould not fow it till about the middle of May: is very important ; for it gives you, that valu:vble time in the fpring, enough tor r ^ LIBRARY. Dioislon of Horticulture, L Vi 0. Dept of Agriculture KALENDAR. 101 to till all the feed-weeds in the ground, and brings you under no difagreeable neceffity, from bad weather in March and Aprils to fow fo late as to hazard the crop ; frequently the cafe with barley and oats. It is as valuable as barley ; where known, fells at the fame price, and, for fatting hogs and poultry, much exceeds it. It is, further, the beft of all crops for fowing grafs-feeds with, giving them the fame fhelter as barley or oats, but not robbing them at all. MADDER. THIS is the principal feafon for planting madder ; a work of very great importance in modern hufbandry of the improved kind. I fuppofe the deep til- lage to have been performed in Othber^ and the land thoroughly water-furrowed. Early in this month it mould be ploughed again, and harrowed fine ; and, towards H 3 the loz THE FARMERS the latter end of it, another earth given, and again harrowed : it is then in order to plant. The fets are to be flipped from an old plantation ; when they are about two inches above the ground is the proper fize, and they mould be fi'n J off as much below the furface as d can ; be- caufe they will then have the better chance of growing ; and, as faft as they are taken up, let them be thrown into tubs of w r ater. Other hands are to be employed in planting ; in which worls; you mull be ruled by the method of difpofing the beds. That which has been, generally pra&ifed, fince the. foci- ety offered premiums, is equally-diftant rows, two feet afunder, the land flat. The merit of this fyftem on dry lands, that do not want fuperficial draining in winter, may oceafion fuccefs ; but I much queftion it : for the horfe-hoeing, (a pra-ftice always recommended) in fach narrow intervals, rauft cut and tear-. KALENDAR. 103 tear the branching roots too much. For this reafon, as well as laying the land dry in winter, ridge-work is vaftly pre- ferable ; either three, four, five, or fix feet ridges. If the flrft, only one row can be fet on each. On four-feet ridges, two rows at nine inches, or one foot, may be planted; and, on wider ridges, as many more as the planter chufes, fo that two feet fix inches, or three feet, be left for horfe-hoeing ; but I mould never recommend more than three rows. The planting fhould be performed with care: women or children mould drop the fets, and men follow to plant them. In this month, there can be no danger of their not growing, efpecially if the Jand is in as good tilth as it ought. Wa- tering will fcarcely ever be necefTary. p. 4 io4 THE FARMER'S LICQUORICE. THE licquorice culture Is generally carried on more completely than that of madder, which is owing to the nature of the root. Madder fpreads its roots ho- rizontally, more than perpendicularly : fo that good tillage, and plenty of food on the fide* of the bed make amends for depth ; but this is very different with licquorice, whofe root is a fingle tap one : fo that the whole crop depends upon the depth of cultivation. Hence we ilnd, that the planters dig the land four feet deep : this appears yaftly expenfive ; but it is greatly lowered by always plant- ing on the fame land : fo that one dig- ging does for taking up one crop, and planting another ; a faving that render* this culture preferable to ploughing. The perpendicular growth of the crop alfo makes it necefTary to plant the fets. much nearer KALENDAR. 105 nearer than madder ones. For inftance : double or treble rows, at nine inches, with two feet fpaces for horfe-hoeing. LUCERNE. THIS plant is one of the moft fa- mous that is cultivated in England : it has, particularly of late years, been more the objecl: of converfation than moft others, and opinions about it have varied as much. I fhall not enter into a de- duction of a general nature j but only point out the beft methods of treating it, in each of the three grand divifions, which modern writers have thrown the culture into, viz. broad-caft, drilled, and tranfplanted. If you fow broad-caft, it mould be with buck-wheat, upon land very rich and good, but not wet, and as clean from weeds as the moft perfect culture can have made it, The proper quantity of feed 106 THE FARMERS feed is twenty pounds to an acre. It f;iould be fown on the flat, and covered by three harrowings. There cannot be a doubt, but lucerne will anfwer to great profit in this way, if the land is extremely rich, and of a deep ftaple ; but on fands, poor gravels, lime-ftones, or chalk foils, I queftion whether any great fuccefs will attend it. For drilling this month, which is the prime feafon, the land I fuppofe to have been thrown on to the ridge in October, and well water-furrowed, and to have been ploughed and harrowed well in March) and the tirft week of this month. The lafl of thofe ploughings mould have thrown it on to five-feet ridges, after which they fhould be harrowed with drill harrows. About the middle, or lalier end of the month, thofe ridges fhould be manured, at the rate of twenty loads an acre of fome very rich compoft, that is fine, and will not impede either the harrows or the drill. This fhould I* KALENDAR. 107 fee turned in by another ploughing, and, at the fame time, arched up ; then har- rowed, again, and drilled with three rows, one foot afunder. About five pounds of feed will be fufficient. There is no drill culture of lucerne that exceeds this. The tranfplantation will be treated of under another month. Drilled lucerne is an extreme valuable crop on rich or well-manured lands, and with good management. A fpirited farmer fhould therefore determine to cul- tivate a good quantity of it, that he may atleaft have a fufficiency for all thofe purpofcs, to which it is particularly adapted : thefe are, feeding horfes with it green in the liable, mown every day ; keeping milch cows and young cattle, and work oxen ; alfo for feeding fwine : but, for feeding horfes, its ufe is fo very great, that no farmer, mould be without a proper quantity for keeping all his teams on. One thorough good acre of Ijicerne will keep four or five horfes, from io8 THE FARMER'S from the firfl of May to the end of 0e~ tobcr: a degree of profit, which no other grafs will equal. I cannot therefore avoid particularly recommending to all Jiufbandmen drilling a few acres of fo excellent a grafs, that will be fure to pay him fo amply for his trouble ; nor fhould he neglect good manuring, or conftant and diligent attention to keeping his crop perfectly clean from weeds. SAINFOINE. THERE arc feveral parts of this kingdom, in which the farmers could not pofftbly pay half their prefent rents without the ufe of this grafs. On dry Hme-ftone and chalky foils, or on any very dry, found land, no matter how poor, it will thrive to extraordinary profit. April is the proper month to fow it in : the land mould be perfectly clean, and free from weeds, and the feeds of weeds ; i and CALENDAR. 109 and this is the onty circumftance required. It matters not how poor it is : fow it with barley or buck-wheat ; the land in as fine tilth as poflible, and the feed co- vered only by one harrowing, if the harrows are heavy, or by two, if they are light, and let it be when the land is perfectly dry. Upon the foils proper for this grafs, no man can fow too much of it ; for no other ufe of the land will pay near fo well. It will, on very poor foils, not worth more than from one milling to two fhillings and fix-pence per acre, yield a ton and half of hay, or a ton at the leafi, at one mow- ing per acre, and afford a considerable after-grafs befides. Now, the ufe of hay is fo univerfal, that fuch products can never want a market ; nor fuch land, thus improved, fail of becoming a vaft fource of profit to whoever has fpirit enough to purfue fuch a beneficial con- duel:. The produ&s and profit cf fuch land in tillage, or in a fbeep-walk, are quite (ti THE FARMED euitc contemptible to them, when fowrt i fainfoine. The proper quantity of from four to five bufhels per acre ; . unfiles fo well broad-caft, that there is no inducement to attempt it in the drill method* BURNET. THIS is the proper feafon for Tow- ing burnet ; and the heft method of cul- tivating it is, to fow about a bufhcl per acre, with either barley, oats, or buck- wheat, and to cover it at three harrow- ings. It flourifhes extremely well on moft foils ; but is not like fainfoine in preferring the pooreft : on the contrary, it yields a produce proportioned to the goodnefs of the land ; but will do on thofe which are very indifferent. The great ufe of it is for fpring feed for fheep. If left of a good height in the au- tumn, it will improve through the win- ter, KALENDAR. in ter, notwithstanding the fevered froft, and be ready, in full luxuriance, early in the fpring. This is a very great ex- cellency, and rivalled in it by no other grafs. Burnet does extremely well mixed with ray-grafs : about three pecks of bur net, and two bufnels of ray-grafs, to the acre. SHEEP. THIS is the month that tries the farmer more than any other in the year, In the whole range of hufbandry, there is no point that puzzles the farmers more, than providing for their flocks through April, and the firft week of May. It proves the good hufbandman as much as any other article in the moft extended farm. The common manage-. ment is to depend on turnips and hay %. and, when the former are done, to turn them into a piece of rye fown on puroofe, 112 THE FARMERS purpofe, or into the crops of wheat, to feed them off; and thefe refources not being proportioned to the want, they let them run over moft of the clover and paftures of a farm ; by which means the crops of hay, and feed for large cattle, are greatly damaged. Bad as fuch a fyftem of management undoubtedly is, yet it actually forms the hufbandry of three fourths of the kingdom, and the bad confequences are felt fo ftrongly, that the number of fheep, on all fuch farms, is governed by the food in April, None of them are flocked properly with {heep throughout the whole year, for want of more food at this feafon : but there are other farmers, who have felt fuch inconveniencies fo ftrongly, that they have taken a few fteps to remedy them : they keep their turnips as long as pofhble, fo as to make their moots an object of fheep feed ; and they every year fbw a piece of clover and ray-graf* on land in pretty good heart, to be ready KALENDAR. 1 13 ready in the fpring to take their flocks from turnips, and keep them till the? general turning to graffes arrives, which is about the tenth or twelfth of May, This conduct,. I muft obferve, is an im«* provement on the other; for it gets rid of three great evils : depending on rye, which is a moft paltry feed, and never pays expences ; feeding the wheat, which is pernicious to the crop ; and turning too foon into the general paftures. But, at the fame time that it effects this advantage, it is open to fome objections, which require a further improvement. The keeping the turnips long in the fpring is very bad hufbandry : it da- mages greatly the barley crop, both in robbing the land, and in preventing its being fown in proper time : nor is the food of great confequence ; for you muft have many acres of turnip tops to keep any ftock of flieep ; and, as to the roots, they grow fo fticky and hard af- ter the tops are at all advanced, that T their U4 THE FARMER'S their value is much declined: then iri refpect to ray-grais, the clover mixed with it, at this feaibn, is feldom above three inches high ; and a vaft breadth of ground, to a given flock, muft be af- figned to keep the fheep from the mid- dle of April till the 12th of May* It is furprif ing the number of acres of that young growth necefTary to keep an hundred fheep and lambs : fo that thefe farmers, although they manage to fpring feed more fheep than the worft of their brethren, yet effect it at a great expence, and at laft not in any degree compa- rable to what they might do* A turnip fhould never be (eth on the ground after March ; for the month of April the farmer fhould have a field of cabbages ready, which, yielding a vaft produce on a fmall breadth of ground, reduces the evil greatly of a late fpring lowing ; and* if he manages as he ought, totally excludes it, by planting cabbages every year on the fame land; 5 The KALENDAR, 115 The large Scotch cabbage will abide the fevereft frofts, and will not burft : it will laft through April The turnip cab- bage will laft till the middle of May \ and, though it runs for feed, yet the bulb will not be hard or fticky. The green boorcole may be fed off feveral times. ; it is impenetrable to froft, and will make long moots in the very depth of winter. If I was to recommend a cab- bage, culture, I fhould prefer the Scotch for April, on account of its vaftly fuperior produce ; and the two latter forts for the iirft fortnight in May, A few acres of land would, in this method, fupport a yery great flock of fheep ; as may be judged, from an affertion of a very ex- perienced cultivator of cabbages, that one acre of the great Scotch will winter fifty fheep. Another crop for feeding fheep in fpring, which is of particular merit, is burnet : an acre of it, managed pro** jperly, will at this feafon yield three I 2 times, n6 THE FARMERS times the food of an acre of clover and ray-grafs. It mould be five or fix Inches high in November, and left fo through the Winter; Burnet has the lingular qua- lity of maintaining its green leaves, to their full growth, quite through the fe- vereft winter : fo that, under deep mows, you find an amazing luxuriance of vege- tation. From November to February the crop will gain two or three inches m growth, and then be ready for fheep. It will be better in March, and, if kept, ready in April, not only for fheep, but for horfes, cows, or any other flock. This is a product which no clover, or ray-grafs in the world, wiff equal ; and it is the peculiar ufe of bur- net, to which it mould ever be ap- pfie CALENDAR, lij t COWS. IT is no objed to a good farmer to get his cows out of the farm-yard this month, efpecially if he has a provifion of cabbages and ftraw, as he ought: he muft be very amply provided with graffes, indeed, to do it to a good pur- pofe, as his flock of fneep muft be the firft objed for fpring feed. Befides, the raifing great quantities of manure in the farm-yard is fo important an objed, that he fhould keep it in fight as long as poffible : turning out any cattle before there is a " thorough good bite for them, is but trifling, and it is very unpro- fitable ; for a field, fo begun, will not laft proportionably with another of a proper growth. The milch cows fliould have their bellies fall of cabbages through- out this month, with flraw before them, and always kept both in the yard and T :> houfe *i8 THE FARMER'S houfe well littered. The lean flock ot' dry cows fhould like wife now have an allowance of cabbages. HORSES. KEEP your horfes clofe to the liable throughout this month : do not think of turning them out yet, and have plenty of litter, that they may continue to raife much dung. This is fo bufy a time, that you fhould have a clofe eye to the work your teams perform : remember, bne day now is worth two by and by : follow the directions laid down laft month, in making them do ten hours work every day. Oxen. THE ox teams, at this feafon, being kept to pretty fharp work, fhould be well KALENDAR. 119 well fed. Give them good hay, and a daily allowance of cabbages. If they are large bealts, they mould have fifty pounds of cabbages each every day. This is a rife, among many others, that will be found to fhew the great confequence of having plenty of cabbages. HOGS. THE ftock of fatting fwine mould now be all gone ; but the fows, pigs, and lean hogs, require good attendance; there is nothing yet for them in the fields : they muft be kept, therefore ? clofe to the farm-yards, where the thrafhers (who mould be kept at work quite through this month) will partly fupply them with food ; and your wafh citterns, and winter ftores of carrots, parfnips, potatoes, &c. will keep all i$ good heart. u izo THE FARMERS POTATOES. THE latter end of this month, the land planted with potatoes fliould ail be hand-hoed over the whole furface, to cut up weeds clean, and loofen the earth. This management is known only in the neighbourhood of London ; but it mould be extended over the whole kingdom, for the excellence of it is indifputablc. The expence of hoeing, when there is a clear fpace to cut, is trifling to that of a crop, and, confequentiy, the fucceeding cleaning, which the potatoes receive after they are up, is performed at a much lefs expence, on account of this operation, and, at the fame time, in a more effec- tual manner. KALENDAR. fef CARROTS. IF the carrot-feed was fown very early, the crop will be ready for the firft hand-hoeing the latter end of this month. The rule is, to give it as foon as the young carrots can be diftinguifhed from the furrounding weeds ; and it mould never be done in wet weather. The men mult ufe three-inch hoes, with handles about two feet long ; and they muft move on one knee, in the way gardeners hoe onions, &c. If the crop is pretty full of weeds, they muft not attempt it Handing with common hoes ; for it is very nice work to diftinguifh the young carrots. This hoeing, if the crop is full of weeds, cannot be done under thirty millings an acre, where the daily pay is one milling and two-pence a dav. fa* THE FARMER'S CABBAGES. 4-PP-IL is the grand feafon for plant* ing the crop of autumn-fown cabbages ; it is a work extremely eafy to perform, and not at all expenftve ; but it is ne- ccflary to manage it in a judicious man- ner, fo that it may be done to the beft advantage. Juft before planting, the Jand is to be ploughed from the ridges pf the laft earth, arching them up : this earth mould turn in the manure ; then the ridges are to be harrowed, and one row of plants fet along each : this is for four or fjve-feet ridges; but, if you plant on three-feet ones, inftead of arcrw ing up, you only reverfe, and plant one row along the top, in the fame manner as on the others. Wonien or boys fhould lead the way with the plants, and drop them, as nearly as they can, where they are to be planted i KALENDAR. 12$ then the men follow with dibbles, and let them : the work goes off quickly, and is not expend ve. Upon an ave- rage, it may be done in angle rows, four feet afunder, for from four millings to five millings an acre. Keep the men at it as long as they can fee ; for, if the weather is very dry, it will be an ad- vantage to the plants to have dews and coolnefs of the night fucceedthe planting, WATER-FURROWING. THIS is a work that mould be well performed on the new-fown lands, as loon as the tillage is finifhed. Very fmall favings in the omiffion of this work, will be attended with certain and great lofles* i P4 THE FARMER^ TURNIP FALLOW, THE fields intended for turnip ^hould receive one ploughing in this month, which mould remain a little while, and then have harrowings enough to make all the feeds of weeds grow, that the tillage, in the fucceeding month, may deftroy them : thefe plough ings ihould be on the flat. WOODS. ALL work in woods ihould conclude the beginning of this month, or damage will enfue from carting and from cattle. Good hufbandmen will obferve to keep their woods well fenced from cattle ; for the mifchief they do is very great. Kalendar. iii HEDGING, THIS month muft conclude the bti= finefs of fences. It is bad hufbandry to cut any hedges after Aprils nor do you give the plafhes a good chance after- wards i they will not be fo fure of grow- ing. Obferve alfo now to bring home all the faggot wood arifing from the hedges : it fhould be left no longen CLEAR GRASS-FIELDS. THE beginning of this month you mould attend particularly to the clearing your grafs-lands from all rubbiih that may affect the young grafs ; fuch as the cores of ant-hills, the flicks arid bufl\es that are left after hedging, and whatever elfe may happen to be found, that will abftruc~t, the fcythe. Mole-cafts mould hs 12^ THE FARMERS be lpread about with a fpade ; and, being nothing but fine loofe moulds, will do good to the grafs : the keeping the mea- dows and paftures in a neat hufband- like manner, requires a good attention Of this fort. ROLLING. AFTER the grafs is cleared, in the manner mentioned in the laft article, it Iliould be rolled to level it for the fey the : the roller muft be juft of weight enough to level worm-cafts, and crufh fmall molds ; that is, a fize larger than a common barley roller. Some gentlemen are extremely fond of ufing very large and heavy rollers, thinking they are be- neficial in proportion to their weight ; but this idea has been much difputed of late. Another practice, founded on di- rect contrary principles, has begun to take place j that of fcarifving grafs with. a plough, Calendar. Saj & plough, confifting only of coulters, or harrow teeth. The advocates for this practice aiTert, that the burthen of hay (not the beauty of grafs as a lawn) is much encreafed by loofening the furface, for the roots to have the power of a frefh vegetation : that the fault of moft pas- tures is the being quite bourid and hard j rolling encreafes this tenacity, and is confequently pernicious. Experiments are mentioned which prove, that grafs- lands are infinitely improved by this 6pe~ ration of fcarifying ; and, further, that it's ufe is extremely great to precede ma- nuring grafs-lands ; for that much dif- ficulty is found to get the manure below the furface, for the roots to feed on ; whereas, if it be fcarified well, the ground is opened fo much, that whatever you fpread on it gets at once to the roots; confequently a Tmall quantity, fo ap- plied, goes as far as a much larger laid on in the old way. It muft be confefTed, that all this reafonirig appears very jufh and 428 THE FARMERS and perfectly fonfonant with the ideas we have of good hufbandry in moft other parts of the management of foils. It however is highly worthy of a fair trial, that the truth on every foil may be known ; for it is a vaft expence that fome perfons put themfelvcs to in rol- lers, amounting fo high as fifty pounds; apiece. HOPS. THE beginning of this month is the proper time to plant hops. I fuppofe the ground to be ploughed deep, and manured in autumn, and to have re- ceived a common earth in March, and been harrowed well. Another plough- ing fhould be given before planting, and the land left finely harrowed i then fend in a plough, held by a, man ufed to draw- ing ftraight furrows, and let him ftrikc furrows, equally diftant, eight feet afunder, which KALENDAR. 129 which he will quickly do, as exact as you could lay a line. When he has finifhed, fend him to crofs them from another fide of the field, in the fame manner; by which means the piece will be ftruck into fquares of eight feet. When the furrows crofs each other are the fpots to make your hillocks, they will then be fo placed, that you may horfe- hoe between the rows both ways, which will be a great advantage, and fave much cxpence in digging. K 130 THE FARMERS MAY. FARM YARD. ABOUT the twelfth of this month, the farmer may calculate, that he will have a fufficient bite of graffes to leave off foddering entirely, and before that he fhould not think of it ; for, if cattle are turned into grafs not fufficiently advanced in growth, they will require fuch a number of acres, that your mowing ground will be greatly cur- tailed. As foon as your yards are cleared, the dung in them rauft be turned over, and mixed carefully with the fluff be- neath, whether it be chalk, marie, turf, ditch earth, or whatever fort. For this pur- KALENDAR. 131 purpofe, you mufl fet many hands to work on it, fo as to get it done as expe- ditiously as you can ; becaufe it fhould lay a little after turning, before it is carried on to the land. It thereby un- dergoes a frefh fermentation, and be- comes more rich and rotten. The me- thod in which the men fhould do this work is, to begin and throw the dung up againft a wall, or into fome vacant fpace, fo as to have the command of a trench to work in : they mould always keep this trench three or four feet wide : then they draw down with dung cromes the dung, and breaking it to pieces with forks, throw it up on the part already mixed, in a fpreading manner, fo as to cover all the chalk or earth. In this manner they proceed with the dung, to the breadth of about eighteen inches, or two feet, till they come to the fluff un- der it ; all which they pull down with pick-axes or mattocks, and, when it is in the trench, br-°ak it further to pieces, K 2 fo i 3 2 THE FARMER'S fo as to have it tine ; that is, no picceJ larger than a man's wrilt. If water hangs in any places in their trench, they fhould have a water-bowl ready to throw it on to the part they have mixed. If this work is well executed, you will have a large hill of excellent manure, ready to lay on to the cabbage or turnip land, to be turned in by the laft earth. Refpecting the quantity ; therein lies the proof of your being a good far- mer ; perhaps, the mod important, convincing proof, that a farm can offer. If you have managed well, you will have from fifteen to twenty loads for every head of great cattle, and about ten loads for every hog, not reckoning pigs : not above a third of the whole marie or earth. Every trulfed load of draw, trampled into dung, will make you fix cart ones of dung, excluiive of any mixture. The loads I mention arc large cart ones of forty bushels. But the earth, which lus land under the* . KALENDAR. 133 the dung all winter, and received all the urine of the cattle, muft by no means be reckoned as inferior to the dung itfelf. It is become a rich manure, without mixing with dung, richer than the beft of marles: and I am well perfuaded, that this retention of the urine in it is of fuch confequence, that the whole compoft, when well mixed together, will be better than if chalk or earth had been brought into the yard, at leaft for moft foils : but, that the favourable cir- cumftances of the conduct much exceeds the expence of it, for all foils, cannot for a moment be doubted. But a very great recommendation of this farm-yard fyftem is the cheapnefs of thus manuring land : the farmer will find, that he can, in no other method, ma- nure at near fo fmall an expence. All purchafed manures come much higher ; many of them five times more expenfive, in proportion to their value. In many fituations, there are no ma 7 K 3 nures, 134 THE FARMER'S nures, of any fort, to be purchafed, in which the farmers, if they do not adopt? fuch a plan as I have mentioned, muft give their land a poor chance ; for it muft be an admirable foil, or a mod excellent courfe of crops, t6 render ma- nure unneceflary. CATTLE IN GRASS. WHEN you turn out your cattle, whether cows, fatting beafts, or young ftock, it is highly requifite to confider the belt method of feeding the grafs : there are two opinions on this point di- rectly contrary to each other. Firft, it is aflcrted, by one fet of graziers, that, let your grafs to be fed confift of ever fo many acres, that the cattle mould have it all at once : if it is divided into eight 6r ten fields, the gates of all to be fct open, for the ftock to feed where they like. Secondly, the other fet advance, that KALENDAR. 13* that large fields, of fifty, eighty, or an hundred acres, mould be divided, that the farmer may change his flock from one to the other, and give the grafs freih and frefh. And each of thefe par- ties aflert, that they know themfelves to be right from experience. But that is impoffible ; one muft, undoubtedly, be wrong. Let us confider the point from reafon : it is one that will never be de- cided fairly from experiment ; for two pieces of grafs, each of eighty or an hundred acres, contiguous and perfetfly alike, are not to- be met with in the king's dominions ; and, if they were, two fets of flock, exactly fimilar, would not be found. The divifions into fields by hedges and ditches, for the purpofes of draining and fhelter, is' not the enquiry, the comparifon not being fair ; as fuch divifions may be fed at once, by fctting all the gates open, as well as one field. The enquiry is, whether the cattle will fpoil the grafs more in one way than m K 4 the 136 THE FARMER'S the other ; and whether the grafs will go as far in one as the other, by fatting or feeding the beafts as well. The ar- gument of giving the grafs frefti and frefh appears to be a vague one ; for it fuppofes that the cattle will not eat it the fame, if they have the whole range at once, which is certainly a miftake : they will not be feen in the evening where they were feeding in the morning, but vary their food in the manner moft agree- able to themfelves ; and we may in general obferve, that the fagacious ani- mals, when left to their own conduct, manage fuch points much better than we can for them. As to the treading and fpoiling the grafs, it is an equal objec- tion to both methods ; for I do not fee any difference : the legs of the beafts are not tied in fmall clofes, any more than in Jarge ones. In cafe all the fmaller pieces have not water, the objections to feeding them fe- parate are much greater. j Further, KALENDAR. 137 Further, in the flocking grafs lands, the farmer fhould attend well to the proportion between his flock and the quantity of his feed. Let him remember, when he flocks h'16 grounds, that he fhould be pretty nice in this proportion ; for, if he overftocks, his lofs will be cer- tain and great; and, if he does not throw in as many cattle as he ought, then he will fufFer in his profit. There are two principal divifions in fattening : to buy in your beafls in Oc- tober or November, and put them to flraw till the end of February ; then to begin their fatting. on turnips, and continue it through March ; from thence to the middle of May on the large; Scotch cab- bage, and then to turn to grafs, and kill in Augufi or September, The other fcheme is, buy in fmaller beads the middle of May lean, and fell them fat from the grafs in the October and Novem* ber following. Where winter food is railed with fpirit, and the farmer takes a proper 135 THE FARMER'S a proper care to provide great plenty of litter to turn into dung, the firft method is much the moft profitable : but, where either of tliefe requiiites are wanting, the latter is preferable. BUCK-WHEAT. AFTER the tenth or twelfth of May, to the end of the month, h the pro- per feafon to fow "thk grain. So late a time has offered the opportunity of per- fect tillage to deflroy weeds, and, of courfe, the land is fine, and in good order. Plough once more, and harrow in the feed on one earth. It is a moft profitable crop, and especially on all (except very heavy foils) land that cither requires late lowing, or that you are difappointed in the' defign of fowing foon enough to barley. Late-fown crops of the latter grain are feldom good enough to pay expences : in fuch cafes, it is of 2 very RALENDAR. ij$ very great utility to fubftitute buck- wheat ; for I do not think the foil exifts, on which a crop of buck-wheat, fown in May, will not exceed in value a crop of barley fown in May ; and yet, in many tracts of country, it is a com- mon cuftom to fow barley fo late as that feafon. >-. .. LUCERNE. THIS is a very good feafon to fow lucerne in : this grafs being a perennial, and, when well cultivated, 'yielding an immefife profit, too much attention can- not be given to lay the feed in the ground with all poffible advantages; that is, the land mould be perfectly free from weeds, .very rich, and as fine as any onion bed : now all tliefe requifites a man may not be able to procure in April. In fuch a cafe, let him not fow in April, but wait till May ; and this, whether you tio THE FARMERS you drill or fow broad-caft : if the latter, let it by all means be with buck-wheat, which is far preferable to fowing it alone. SAINFOINE. • SOW this grafs alfo with buck-wheat : you need not fear fuccefs, if your foil be proper ; for hay, in countries where natural meadows and paftures are fcarce, fainfoine is fo valuable, that this culture fhould be attended to more than it is. It is a common notion, that this grafs will thrive only on lime-ftone lands or chalky foils; on thofe that are quite dry, and have, at the fame time, a ftratum of rock or chalk, to prevent the roots pene- trating into a wet clay, as it is well known thofe foils have no fuch bottom. This circumftance excludes very exten- five tracts in many parts of the kingdom, where fainfoine would be a moll valuable acqui-* KALENDAR. 141 ftcquifition ; but it is much to be regretted* that we fhould not experimentally know the truth of thefe aflertions. It is a mif- fortune, that fome experiments are not publifhed to prove, that this grafs will not thrive on gravels, loams, &c. &c. particularly thofe that are dry. General ideas, the refult of ages of practice, are admirable guides to tell us, what will do\ but they are miferable conductors in informing us what will not do. The common farmers never, blunder in the general practice of the former ; but al- moft always in the latter. BURNET. THIS grafs may be fown in May with buck-wheat, with as great propriety as at any other feafon ; nor do I think fuch an opportunity fhould by any means be neglected in favour of an au- tumnal fowing, which was the direction of i^z THE FARMER'S of Mr. Rocque ; for two crops out of Xhree will be loll by that management. CARROTS. IF the carrot crop was not hand- hoed laft month, it fhould be done this : the men mould execute it with four inch hoes, moving along on their knee6, as directed in April; and thofe crops, which were then hoed for the firft time, will require an harrowing early in this month, and a fecond hand-hoeing about the laft week. The harrowing will not damage the young carrots, nor pull up one in twenty ; but it will difplace the weeds fet again by rain, and check the growth of thofe that are got up fince. The other hand-hoeing mould be per- formed with nine-inch hoes : the men to ftand as at turnip hoeing, and they fhould fet out the plants to the diftance of fifteen or eighteen inches from each other. KALENDAR. i 4s other. Gardeners do not let< them flanci further than eight or nine inches afunder;' but, when the roots are defigned to be of a large fize, that is much too little : the crop will, in very good, or well ma-, nured land, meafure more bufhels at a larger diftance. Thefe obfervations arci equally applicable to parfnips. POTATOES. SOME time during May, the potatoe crop will require a complete hand-hoeing,, which fhouid be done with, good atten- tion, that not a weed may be left, and the furface of the land be left well cut, and in fine order. Crops in rows mould receive, befides this hand-hoeing, the ; firft horfe-hoeing, which fhouid be given with a common fwing-plough, drawn by two horfes, one before another, and turn a furrow from the rows, throwing' up 144 THE FARMERS up a fmall ridge in the middle of each interval. May is a month that requires thefe operations to be well and atten- tively performed ; for the weeds grow at a great rate, and, without fuch an at- tention, will deftroy, or at leaf! greatly damage the crop. CABBAGES. THE crop of cabbages planted in April will require a hand-hoeing this month* It ihould be given only to the tops of the ridges, about eight or nine inches around the plants ; the weeds Ihould be cut up clean, and loofe moulds drawn to the items of the plants. In about ten days after, the firft horfe-hoeing ihould be given, turning a furrow from the plants, and throwing up a ridge of earth in the middle of each interval. This operation will be of great ufe : it leu KALENDAR. lets the fun into the ridges on which the plants ftand, and confequently fweetens and ameliorates the foil ; and it kills the weeds that grow on the fides of the ridges much cheaper than it can be done by the hand-hoe : it likewife pulverizes the earth taken away, and expofes it for fome time to the fun, to bring it into fine o,rder for returning to the plants in June> when they will ftrike into it, and thrive the more fop fuch treatment. The land defigned to be planted in yune, mould this month receive an earth to throw it on to whatever fized ridges you intend to plant ori. This mnft not be omitted ; becaufe the begin- ning of the next month will be tr\!:e^ up in carting on the manure, L 146 THE FARMERS MADDER. THE crop planted laft month will want a hand-hoeing before the expiration of this month : that work fhould be done with eight-inch hoes, and very carefully; for the young plants will not bear rough treatment of any kind, being of a moft brittle nature. It will not be advifeablc Co horfe-hoe yet. LICQUORICE. THE young crop of licquorice muft be hand-hoed in May, and carefully hand-weeded at the fame time. In com- mon management, this is not well done, owing to the cropping the ground the firft year with onions or carrots, both which, or any other plant, are but fo many weeds, that rob the principal pro- duce. KALENDAR. 147 WHEAT FALLOW. IF the farmer fallows for wheat, which is, however, but an unprofitable practice, according to the modern ideas of hufbandry, the land ihould receive an earth this month, to turn in the weeds that have arofe on it fince the laft. The maxim of making the fallows very fine in April 9 to deftroy the weeds by a ploughing in May, or the beginning of June, is in general an excellent one ; for how are they to be killed, if they do not vegetate ? If the fallows are left rough in the common manner, the feeds of weeds are fhut up in the clods : they are broken by the time the wheat feed is fown : muft not the ^onfequence be their growing among the wheat ? But it has been urged, that on rich clays this prac- tice would not be proper, on account o£ fuch fpring tillage, as I have defcribed, L 2 cutting !4$ THE FARMER 1 * cutting in numerous pieces the root- weeds, every bit of which grows ; con- fequcntly you would do as much mif- chicf in one inftaricc as good in another j but, being turned up very rough in large clods, the fun bakes them, and com- pletely kills the roots. It is ever abfurd to rcafon againft real experience ; there J fore, if a farmer tries the fpring tillage, and finds, contrary to expectation, that it fills his lands with pernicious weeds,- itiftead of killing them, he certainly mould defift. But I know, from the experience of many perfons, that fuch management as 1 have mentioned has to- tally deftroyed all feed-weeds, and proved rio impediment to the deftruction of root ones, by fucceflivc tillage through the burn- ing parts of the fummcr J not by leaving (he roots in pofTefii^n of large clods, but turning theni up to the fun in earth fo j with tillage, that the harrows draw ■ out, and leave them fo expofed that death is the confequcncc. This is the cafe 5 with KALENDAR. 149 with the grades, which are among the WQrft. Docks, indeed, can be no way deftroyed, but by letting them grow, and then digging them up with fpades, and carrying them clear away from the land, HORSE-HOED CORN, WHEAT, barley, oats, peafe, beans, &c. &c. that are drilled on ridges, with intervals left for horfe-hoeing, mult be well attended to through this month ; the rows mould be we'll hand-hoed and weeded at the fame time, by the men {looping down to pluck out fuch, with their ringers as they cannot get away with their hoes, without damage to the crop. One horfe-hoejng mould alfo be given this month, with tl;e common fwing- plough, turning a furrow from the plants, which confequently will throw up a fmall ridge in the middle of each intent 1 . ; I* 3 thi$ ISO THE FARMER'S this kills all the weeds, and pulverizes the earth of the intervals, ready to throw it back by fucceeding operations to the corn. In this horfe-hoeing, the plough fhould go within four inches of the rows : if any corn is buried, it muft be unco- vered by rakes. In horfe-hoeing peafe, great care muft be taken the trailing branches are not trodden or broken, which fhould be prevented by banking up the rows firft with a hand-hoe, fo as to make them incline inwards, from the intervals. SHEEP, I fuppofe your fpring food to have lafled till the tenth or twelfth of May : then they are to be turned into their fummer's grafs, in which you mult ob- ferve to manage according to the nature of your Mock. If your flock confifts of lean flock fheep, whofe only profit is lai.ib and wool, except folding, then 2 your KALENDAR, 151 your bufinefs throughout the year, on whatever food, is to keep them in good and healthy order, but to take care not to fat them, for then you will plainly have too fmall a flock, and your profit ac- cordingly fuffer : thefe flocks are proper for farms on poor foils, which require a large fold, and belonging to which are extenfive commons, waftes, or fheep- walks : fuch tratts will only keep the fheep, but never fatten one. Another management in enclofed coun- tries, is to buy ewes in Augufi or Sep- tember, to turn them on to the fallows, or the pooreft grafs on a farm, till Chriftmas, and then to begin to give them fome turnips or cabbages, keeping them in good heart through their lamb- ing, and afterwards as well as poflible, that the lambs may be drawn fat by the butcher, foon enough to get the ewes fat and gone by September or OBober, This is a very profitable practice, and pays the farmer extremely well ; but it ad- L 4 mits \ 5 i THE FARMER'S mits of very little folding, only through the winter on dry grafs land, and in the fpring a little. Whether it might be ventured on in fumraer, with fatting fheep, is a queftion not abfolutely der cided at prefent. This purchafmg of ewes, to fell them and their lambs fat in the fummer, extends from fheep a year old to old ones, called in fome parts old crones, A third fyftem of conducting fheep is, to buy in three-year-old wethers in the beginning of this month ; to keep them rather bare till about three weeks after the hay is cleared, during all which time they are folded : then to give them good keeping by degrees, and from it put them to turnips or cabbages to fat : contrive fo as not to fell till March, and keep many of them to the firft week in May ; during all which feafon they fell better than at any time in the year. This is a mofl excellent fheep management, and will pay the farmer as w r ell as any other : KALENDAR, 153 other; and, if his land is good, better than molt. He may, at the fame time, carry on the ewe fyftem, which are fold fat in autumn from grafs ; by which means he may convert his whole farm, if he pleafes, profitably to the keeping and fatting of fheep. Whatever the ftock is, this is the time for turning them from winter to fum- mer food ; and you mould take care that you have a fufficiency of clover or natural grafles for all your ftock. In the diftribution of it, you mould attend particularly to the diftinclion between thofe forts of cattle that do well en clover, and fuch as require natural paftures. Sheep, hogs, young cattle, horfes and cows, that are fuckled, are fed to more profit on clover, than in paftures ; but fatting hearts, large working oxen, and cows that are milked, require natural grafs. It is true, butter and cheefe are in many places made from clover; but then we do net know whether the prices are 154 THE FARMER'S are not lower. If your clover is good, it will carry five, fix, feven, or eight iheep an acre, or one horfe ; and on forae lands even more. Good grafs will carry a cow to an acre ; but it muft be above the common run. However, in pro- portioning the (lock to the grafs, take care to be rather under than over ; be- caufe it is an eafy matter to mow a few acres for hay, in cafe you have too much ; but cattle cannot be fold half fat to advantage. FOLDING SHEEP. THIS month begins the folding feafon throughout England; and the practice is of fuch importance, that it mould be fleadily purfued in all places that abound with flock fheep. All lean meep, and perhaps all flitting ones, mould he folded ; but the fold fhould be much larger than for the lean flock : and KALENDAR. 155 and yet they will do as much good to the land, that is, go over it as quick ; for the benefit from fat beafts of all forts to the land, both in dung and urine, much exceeds that from lean ones. In your folding, you mould obferve one point, which is to manure the lands thoroughly. Many farmers give a very flight drefling : one night in a place, and the fold three fquare yards per fheep ; inflead of which it mould be two nights, and only two fquare yards, or but one yard. In a word, the land fhould be left quite black, if arable ; and with a pretty good covering, if grafs. The proper arable lands to fold this month are the cabbage and turnip fallows : thofe crops will be fown and planted in June, confequently will reap the benefit of the manure dire&ly. THE, FARMER'S HOGS, WHEN the farm-yards are cleared pf cattle, the hogs fhould be forted, and afl thofe of a proper age for feeding on clover mould be drawn and turned into it : this is a part of farming that has of late been much expatiated on ; but is not common husbandry in a fifth part of the kingdom. It well defcrves to be con- (i de-red, which is eafy to do, as we have pf late had pretty clear accounts of it. In the old management of iwine, they were kept at home, about the farm-houfe, pr a clofe of grafs, all fummer, with times of regular feeding on waih, grains, or corn ; but the error of iuch a conduct was making no diilindion between fowjS with pigs, or weaned pigs, and large hogs. In the new method, all the waih, fee. is referved for the former ; confe- rjuently a much larger flock can be kept ; kalendAr, i if srid the hogs, half and three fourths grown, are turned into the clover about the middle of this month ; and it is di- rected, that th6 gates of the fields be locked on them, and kept there till Michaelmas i but for this conduct th£ fences muft all be in excellent repair, arid a pond in the field for the hogs to drink at; This food agrees wonderfully W r ith them : they grow very fair* and are taken Out of the clover, in admirable order for fatting. This practice muft certainly be attended w r ith very beneficial effects : enabling the farmer to keep larger breeding flocks of hogs is alone of much confequence, and cannot fail of greatly improving his profit : the large iwine will pay for the clover, as w^ell as A. J any other application of it.; and the" confequence of the whole fyfteiiij in. raifing large quantities of excellent mamjre, cannot be too Wrongly infilled on. As the dairy will this month afford great i 5 S THE FARMER'S great plenty of butter-milk and cheefe- whey, you ihould referve all that is not wanted for the prefent ftock of fows and pigs in brick citterns, fc> contrived, that it may run without lofs directly from the dairy into them : this will be worth many pounds per annum in a farm of any fize : where fuch contrivances are not ufed, the wafh muft all be ufed as faft as it is made, and whether wanted or not ; which is a vaftly greater lois than many perfons, not ufed to the im- proved practice, will eafily imagine. In thofe countries, where the fyftem of hogs is perfect:, they form much the moft confiderable part of the dairy's profit. HORSES. THE beginning of this month, the farmer mould leave off dry meat for his horfes. Either turn them out to clover, or KALENDAR. 159 or foil them in the ftable on lucerne ; and, if he has not lucerne, on clover. This is one of the moll important articles in his bufinefs : he ihould there- fore confidcr it well, ibn he may ad- here to that practice, which moft reduces the expence of keeping the team, which, in general, is fo great, as to eat up half the profit of a farm. Food given in the ftable goes much further than in the field, and alfo enables the farmer to raife large quantities of dung throughout the fummer. Thefe are both objects of great confequence ; and, if he appropriates a fmall field of lucerne, near the ftable, to this ufe, he will find it by far the cheapeft way of keeping his horfes. An acre, perfectly well managed in the drill way, on rich good land, and amply manured, will maintain four horfes, from the latter end of April to the end of Ottober ; but, if a farmer would manage in the moft ju- dicious manner, he mould allot an acre to 160 THE FARMERS to every three horfes ; by which means he will be fure to have plenty to fparc for any other ufe. This fyftem of conducting the team cannot be too ftrongly recommended : thofe farmers, who provide grafs or clover to turn their horfes into, know well the great quantity of lahd that muft be afligned them, and the high expences in general of keeping horfes : they mould determine to embrace all methods of lowering fuch great expences, and none offers more clearly, and with a greater certainty, than the cultivation of lucerne for fummer food. O X E N. OX teams are maintained in winter at a much lefs expence than horfes ; but in fummer they are nearer an equality : the fame rcafoning is therefore applicable to both. It is as advifeablc to foil oxen ori KALENDAH. i6£ on lucerne as horfes : they will thrive extremely well on it, and at a much lefs expence than pafturing them in the common manner. COWS, IN this month, the cows mould be kept in good food, that the dairy or the calves may return the farmer a due pro- duel:. Clover and ray-grafs, that has been fed off early with fheep, will fuit them well ; but if the clover fhould, as it is commonly imagined to do, give the butter a tafte, the variation of price fhould then be calculated on comparifon with the convenience the farmer finds in feed- ing with that grafs. Lucerne does ex- cellently for cows, and gives the butter no ill tafte i it will, mown and given in racks or cribs, go much further than any food, and at the fame time yield an opportunity of railing much dung : a M point 162 THE FARMER'S point that ought never to be forgotten. If this method is purfued, it will be moft advifeable to let the cows go in a fmall pafture of an acre or two, with a pond in it, and be baited on lucerne in the cow-houfe, or in cribs in a yard ad- joining, three times a day, with good care taken, that the feeding places are kept well littered. In this manner the dairy or calves will not fail of proving extremely profitable. It is not at all ncceiTary to avlert, that the cows will 'yield as large a produce in this manner, as when turned into natural grafs up to their horns : that is by no means the enquiry; but there cannot be a doubt of their yielding a much greater profit, which is the only point of confequence. In natural grafs, they will eat, fpoil, and trample a great breadth ; in exceed- ing good grafs, perhaps, an acre a head at leaf! ; but, if your lucerne is good, one acre will feed three or four cows amply. Such a ftate of the cafe at once ihews, KALENDAR. 163 mews, that the produB of the cows has nothing to do in the enquiry : it is the clear profit alone that fhould be con- fidered. In the feeding of horfes, oxen, or cows, with lucerne,, let me obferve, that it fhould be regularly mown every day, or every two days at moft ; and the beft way of carrying it to the ftable will be in a fmall fkeleton-cart drawn by one horfe, and made for the purpofe. In the cutting- it, the plantation fhould be marked into thirty or fifteen divifions ; one t»be mown every day, or every two days, and the cattle fo proportioned, that they may eat it regularly. This will fave trouble, and make the proportion between the cattle and their food be difcovered with the greater accuracy : the lucerne, if well managed, will be ready to cut every thirty days. Mi 164 THE FARMERS THE DAIRY. NOW begins the hurry of the dairy- maid's bufmefs : this is one of the moft ticklifh parts of the farmer's bufmefs. Unltfs he has a very diligent and in- duftnous wife, who fees minutely to her dairy, or a moft honett, diligent, and careful houfe-keeper to do it for him, he will afluredly loie money by his y : trufted to common fervants, it will never pay charges. The dairy- maid muft be up every morning by four o'clock, or me will be backward in her ijaefsi At fix, the cows mull be milked, and therd mult be milkers enough to finiili by feven. The fame rule mud be obferved in the evening. Qeanlinefs is the great point in a dairy: the utenfils fhould all be fcalded every ; the pails, and whatever elfe are (mull enough, boiled In the copper daily, And KALENDAR. 165 and vaft quantities of cold water fhould be conftantly poured down on the floor in hot weather, a cock of water run- ning conftantly through it : falling on the floor, and dafhing a good deal about, would have excellent effects in cooling the air. There is fcarcely any part of a farm that wants contrivance more than a dairy : if the number of cows be very great, well-contrived conveniencies would fave half the expence of labour, and pay a farmer amply for erecting them him- felf. PARE AND BURN. PARING and burning the turf is, in fome places, begun fo foon as March ; but it ought never to be done till April, and it is better ftill the beginning of May, at leaft the burning; but the paring may be executed throughout March and April. In the burning, M 3 many i66 THE FARMERS many hands mould be fet at work at once, that a dry time may be caught for it, in cafe the feafon in general proves wet. The afhes mould only be fpread before the plough, and turned in immediately : if they are long expofed to the air, they will lofe much of their virtue. One peculiar circumftance at- tending the breaking up of grafs lands, whether old turf or fainfoine lays, in this manner, is the bringing them in order for turnips with only one plough- ing; and it is a general and very juft obfervation, both in the north and weft of Efigland, where this husbandry is moft common, that turnips fcarcely ever are known to fail on burnt lands : the fly, on fuch, is totally unknown. Now, any farmer muft be fenfible of the vaft importance of thus bringing turf-land, by only one ploughing, to a turnip crop: an infinity of tillage is thus faved, as well as a great expence ; and the tur- nips arc always io great a crop, that they repay KALENDAR. 167 repay the expences of the operation with moft ample profit. In a word, this hufbandry deferves the warmeft praife. But of late years an opinion againft it has prevailed much in fome counties. Several of the nobility and gentry, of very large eftates, have interdicted the practice, not allowing their tenants to pare and burn under any pretence what- ever. The reafon affigned for this con- duct is an apprehenfion, that the depth of the foil decreafes from it : that you burn the land, and reduce half an inch to half a line ; a great evil, when the land is perhaps only three or four inches deep on a lime-ftone rock. But this reafoning many very fenfible and expe- rienced farmers know to be falfe. They, on the contrary, urge the univerfal cir- cumftance of no land ever being pared till it has acquired a turf, which, with natural graffes, will be about twenty years \ and, with fainfoine, the duration M 4 of i68 THE FARMERS of the crop, which is from fifteen to twenty years : that it is not the foil which is burnt, but the bulbs of the plants, the roots, and net-work of grafs roots : the earth, which is intermixed, is never burnt ; it is calcined, but never reduced to afhes, all of which arife from bulbs and roots : hence the fact, that the ftaple of the foil never fuffers from paring and burning. If this reafoning be not true, whence the known fact, that foils not four inches thick, and which have remained at the fame thicknefs as long as the oldeft man can remember, have yet been pared and burnt regularly every crop of fainfoine ; that is, five or fix times in a century ; and, as the fame hufbandry is known by record to have been practifed for ages on the fame land, ^he ftaple muft have loft three inches every hundred years ; in other words, it muft have been totally gone long ago, and nothing but rock remained : all which KALENDAR. 169 which is evidently falfe, the foil at this day being as thick as ever. We may from hence conclude, what fuch farmers affert to be true, that the earth fufFers no diminution, thofe roots and bulbs only being reduced to allies, which in break- ing up by the plough alone would rot quite away. HOPS. DIG the new-planted hop-garden this month; earth up the plants, and fee that no weeds are left to infeft them. At this time you mould alfo pole your old plantations, proportion- ing your poles to the age and growth of your hops, ITO THE FARMERV BEES. WATCH well your apiary, for yon rauft now expect the bees to fwarm. This moft ufeful infect is not fo much attended to by many farmers as it-ought : not a farm-houfe mould be without bee-^ hives ; for the trouble they give is very trifling, and by" farmers fmall profits mould not be neglected : the union of them is not trifling. H E M P. THIS is the beft feafon to fow hemp in. I fuppofe the land to have had its firfl: tillage in OSiober, left on the fliarp ridge, and well water-furrowed in the fpring ; to have been flirred twice or thrice, and well manured. The feed mould be harrowed in, from two to four bufhels KALENDAR. 171 bufhels per acre. This plant requires the very ftrongeft, richeft land that can be fixed on ; for, on poor foils, it yields no profitable return. I do not think it is a crop that is in general advifeable : a good farmer will make more money by applying with as much fpirit to more common articles, as he muft to this, if he cultivates it at all. FLAX. THIS is another culture that requires extreme rich land and great manuring. • It anfwers pretty well with the due attention; but I may remark on this crop what I did on hemp, that the fame favourable circumftances of foil, manure, and weeding, would repay the farmer much better in other crops, fuch as cab- bages, potatoes, carrots, &c. &c. with this general and great fuperiority : hemp and flax are very great exhaufters ; whereas i 7 2 THE- FARMER'S whereas the crops I propofe are un- doubtedly beneficial to the foil, and vaftly improving to a whole farm, in the quantity of dung they enable you to raife. Flax may be fown in April; but, if you have not your land in excellent tilth, it is better deferred till May, JUNE. KALENDAR. 173 JUNE. TURNIPS. THIS is the great feafon for fowing turnips : later fown crops fcarcely ever arrive at the fize of thofe fown in 'June. There is a common idea among the farmers, that the turnip fea- fon lafts juft a month, a fortnight before, and a fortnight after Midfum?ner ; but let the hufbandman make good ufe of the firfr. fortnight: the latter will not equal it, unlefs the weather is more fa- vourable. The land I fuppofe to have been ploughed for the 1 aft time but one in May: the beginning of this month the manure mould be carted on to it, which, i;4 THE FARMER'S which, in a well-ordered farm, mould come from the farm-yard ; and, if that does not yield a fufficiency to cover a fourth part of the arable land, the farmer is a bad one. If he has a thorough command of litter, and money enough in his pocket to buy plenty of cattle, it will cover a third of it ; but, whatever quantity of turnips he has, let him dung them well. In this work he fhould proceed regularly, beginning one fide of the field, and laying the heaps in lines from top to bottom, it fhould be fpread immediately, and the ploughs follow directly to turn it in. Upon that ploughing, the feed fhould be fown with- out lofs of time, and covered by two or three harrowings, according to the finenefs of the land. I have fometimes feen the dung carried out a week before it is ploughed in ; but that is very bad hufbandry : for much of the goodnefs of it is carried away by the fun. It mould be taken in full fermentation from the heap, KALENDAR. 175 heap, and turned dire&ly in, fo as to ferment under the moulds, which will enfure a great crop. If the farm em- ploys many teams, it will be proper to proportion them, fo as to let the ma- nuring, ploughing, and harrowing, be conftantly going on, without inter- ruption. As to the feed, obferve well to fow the great round turnip, that lies quite above ground, and holds to it only by a fmall tap- root. It grows larger than any other, and has the excellent quality 'of being uied in winter with ' much greater eafe than thofe forts, which root quite under ground, and are con- fequently not to be got at in a flight froft. Sow about a quart. an acre: lefs than a pint is fufficient, perhaps half a pint, if they all grow, and efcape the •fly ; but I have feen many thin-fown pieces totally eaten up, when the thick- fown ones have fufFered much, and yet enough efcaped for a crop. In extreme drv feafons, much feed 3 1 will i?£> THE FARMERS ■will not vegetate; but fuch inftances are rare : the moft common misfortune is the fly, which eats them off before they gain the rough leaf. Many reme- dies have been propofed for this evil ; but none that are effectual. Steeps for the feed are mere quackery. Strewing foot over the plants, as foon as attacked, will very often fave them, but the remedy is very expenfive; becaufe, on numerous foils at this feafon, the foot will be of no fervice as a manure. The very beft dependance is on trie richnefs of your foil : if it is extremely fertile, or full of dung, the growth of the tur- nips will be forced ; fo much accelerated, that they will prefently grow out of the power of the fly. I have often re- marked in fields partly dunged, that thofe lands, which received no manure, iiave been totally eaten up, while the dunged parts have efcaped clear. With- out manure, the growth is fo flow, that 4 the KALENDAR. 177 the enemy has many opportunities to attack the plant. , When a crop is totally deftroyed, the farmers plough and fow again, which fhould never be omitted, if you have t;me. Probably you may do this, and yet get your crop in in June, which will be a fortunate circumftance attend- ing a firft early fowing. CABBAGES. UPON your cabbage lancfc you fhould purfue the fame maxims as above laid down for turnips, only in ploughing the manure in, always throw the land on to the ridge, and fet the plants in a fingle row on the top of each : To the dung is covered up in the ridges, and the plants in a proper fituation for pro- fiting by it to the utmoft. As to the diftance of the rows, you muft be guided abfolutely by the richnefs of the foil : N if i 7 S THE FARMERS if you find the plants join From row to row, when at four feet, then you have proof, that they mould not be planted nearer ; but, if they no more than join, on three feet rows, then you would lofe in the crop, if you gave a greater diftance : two .feet, from plant to plant, is the proper diftance. When the manure is fpread and turned in, the proper way of planting will be to fend women or children in with bundles of plants, to drop them on the tops of the ridges, at about two feet diftance. They will lay ready for the men, who may then plant almoft as faft as they can walk ; but, if they have to get, carry, and fet the plants, they will not be able to do near the work they might with better contrivance. The rows at four feet may be planted at five millings an acte 1 . It is a rule among the cabbage planters in hus- bandry, never to water the plants, let the feafon be as dry as it may, infifting that CALENDAR. 179 that it is entirely ufelefs. Upon this I mall venture to remark, that in moft years, if the land is in fine tilth, and well dunged, this may be right, as the expence mull be confiderable ; but I mould apprehend that, in very dry fea^ fons, when the new-fet plants have nothing but a burning fun on them, that watering would fave the lives of vaft numbers, and might very well anfwer the expence, if a pond is near, and the work done with a water-cart. There is one ufe in cabbages, which appears not to have met with the at- tention it merits : it is the planting on thofe lands where turnips have failed. A late-fown crop of thofe roots fcarcely ever comes to any profitable amount; but cabbages planted on the land, with- out any frefh ploughing, would turn out a very beneficial crop for fheep late in the fpring : in ajl probability, (unlefs on very light, fandy, or lime-ftone N 2 foils) l8 THE FARMER'S t (oils) of greater value than the turnips, had they hicceedeu. No farmer can entertain too high {cn- timents of the neccffity of gaining crops of green winter food : the importance of having inch food for his cattle* and not depending totally on hay, is one of the clearcft axioms in the whole range of hufbandry. His profits will be amazingly leirencd : his lofs in the want of ma- nure felt fevercly for many years, and on farm.-, not abounding with hay, his expence in buying it, or his lofs in felling his cattle, will be equally great. But, befides thefe accumulated evils, there is another of a different nature, which he mould coniider well : it is the change of his courfe of crops. After either turnips or cabbages, he fows fpring corn, and with that fpring corn clover. On fome foils, the grafs is left but one year, in others two, and in others, mixed with ray-grafs, three, four, or five. The lay is ploughed up, and wheat KALENDAR. 181 wheat at once harrowed in. This is at once compendious, cheap, and yet moll excellent hufbandry ; for the whole duration of the grafs is a conftant fund of profit, at fcarce any expence, and the preparation for wheat is carrying on all the time in the mofl beneficial manner. But, if the turnips fail, and no cabbages planted, what is the confequence ? Whv, the farmer fows wheat on the fallow, in hopes of a good crop, to pay him for fo much tillage as the land has received. This introduction of that grain at once breaks the whole arrangement of his farm, and he is forced either to hegin again, or to purfue that pernicious huf- bandry of fowing two crops of white corn running. He muft either fallow for turnips again, or take a crop of barley, and then turnips : thus is he thrown out of his clover, though as im- portant a crop as any on his farm, and launches into a i'eries of tillage, that Cannot but prove very expenfive to him, N 3. without i82 THE FARMER'S without repaying half the benefit that the clover courfe would have done. For thefe reafons, when the turnips fail, and cabbages are not planted, the land fhould be laid up in winter for barley, and the clover fown with it, which will turn out far more profitable than throwing in wheat. The cabbages planted in Aprils ancl hand-hoed" and horfe-hoed in May, fhould now have the fecond of each of thofe operations given : a hand-hoeing the middle of the month, which muft cut up all weeds, and break the earth well of the narrow flip, on which the plants were left. Towards the latter end, the plough fhould go another bout in the intervals, fplitting the ridge thrown up in May, and returning it to the rows. Thefe operations will be of very great utility to the crop. KALENDAR. 1S3 CARROTS. THE carrot crop will, in all pro- bability, require a hoeing this* month, about the latter end Of it. It mould -be performed with common hoes, and the men, who execute it, mould take good care to kill all remaining weeds, and wherever they left the carrots double before, to fet them out to the proper diftances. This being the third hoeing, the land mould be left in fuch order, as to require no more work, or, at leaft, nothing more than once going over it the latter end of Augujl y to cut up ftrag- gling weeds, which may by that time have arifen. N 4 i*4 THE FARMER'S POTATOES. ANOTHER hand-hoeing muft be given the potatoe crop, which fhould be fo effectual ly performed, as to pre- clude the neceflity of any fucceeding ones ; becaufe the plants will be too much grown to be hoed without damage in the operation. The crops planted in rows for horfe-hoeing muft have the fecond this month, given with the fwing-plough as before : it muft fplit the ridge before thrown up, and lay it equally to the rows. MADDER, ANOTHER hand-hoeing muft be given to the madder crops this month, in which the labourers muft be extremely attentive not to damage the crop ; for the KALENDAR. r8 5 the branches will be grown confiderably, and they are fo remarkably brittle, that the leaft rough ufage breaks and da- mages them : they muft not ufe longer than fix or eight-inch hoes. The latter end of the month, the firft horfe-hoeing fhould be given. Put two horfes, one before the other, in the fwing-plough, and turn a furrow on each fide from the plants, which will confequently throw up a ridge in the middle of each interval, and fo it mould be left till the next month. L1CQUORICE. THIS month the licquorice plan- tation muft be hand-hoed again. Let the work be carefully performed with fmall hoes ; but the plant not being nearly fo brittle as madder, it will not require fo much, nicety in the manage- ment. rt6 THE FARMER'; HOPS. TIE the hops to the poles the begin- ning of this month, and towards the end of it examine them, to retie fuch as have become loofe. Be very diligent to keep the garden clean from weeds. FLAX. WEED the young flax : this is an expenfive operation ; but the crop de- pends on it : it muft therefore be effec- tually performed. LUCERNE. THE lucerne, drilled in the fpring, will now want a very careful attendance. It will not be advifeable to horfe-hoe it the KALENDAR. 187 the firft year, becaufe its great tender- nefs will not bear any accidental evils that may arife in the operation ; but the hand-hoes ihould be kept diligently at work; the land kept throughout this work perfectly free from weeds, and the furface well broken by the hoes, to keep it from any . degree of binding. While the men are hoeing, they mould never omit to ftoop and pluck out fuch weeds with their fingers, as grow among the plants in the -rows : this is highly necef- iary; for, if they are left, they will injure the young lucerne much. Who- ever cultivates this grafs, mull abfolutely determine to fpare no expence in the era- dication of weeds : if it is not done in the moft perfect manner, the crop will anfwer very poorly. There is ho plant will bear the neighbourhood of weeds fo badly, and efpecially while it is young. If the hand-hoes are applied in time, and often enough, the expence will not be great ; but if, through faving, you defer iSS THE FARMERS defer it till they are gotten much a-head, the crop will either be totally loft, or the cxpence of cleaning be enormous. The old crops of drilled or tranfplanted lucerne will be ready for cutting this, as well as every month through fummer, if the land is made rich enough for it, and the weeds are never allowed to rife. After the cutting, horfe-hoe the rows, each time the reverfc of the former ; and, in refpecl of hand-hoeing, be guided by the weeds : give it as often as neceflary to deftroy them abfolutely and com- pletely. Some cultivators have found a difHculty in the cutting lucerne : they fay that, in mowing it, if the intervals are kept in fine tilth, fo much duft is taken up with the crop, that the cattle will not eat it ; but, in anfwer to this, I may obferve, that if weeds enough are left to prevent this evil, the crop will be deftroyed. It fhonld be either reaped and laid at once into a cart, or on heaps, or elfe the in- convenience KALENDAR. 189 convenience fubmitted to ; which I might obferve, cannot be any thing like fo great as fome people imagine. SAINFOINS. THE latter end of June, the fain- foine crops will, in general, be ready to mow : they fhould always be , made into hay ; for no grafs in the world an- fwers fo well for that purpofe. It is a common thing to gain from two to three tons per acre on dry good land, that with any other crop would yield none at all : and the after-grafs is extremely valuable, much more fo alone, than the former value of the land. CLOVER. THE latter end of June, the clover crops will be ready to mow. In many fituations ioo THE FARMER'S fituations it will not be adviieable to feed any more of it than can be difpenfed with, the hay paying lb much -better. In the making of all artificial grafles into hay, particularly clover and fain- foine, it mould be obferved to ad quite differently from the making natura grafs. The latter is ftrewed about foon after mowing ; but the former mould lie in fwarth a clay or two, then turned carefully, and lie a day or two longer. In good weather, this makes it fufficiently. It may then be got into cocks, in which it ihould remain about two days, and then carted to the Itack. The whole is a very eaiy and cheap procefs. MEADOWS. TKE very early or rich meadows, and the highly manured upland paftures, about great cities, will be ready to mow in June. In executing the work, ob- ferve KALENDAR. 191 ferve particularly, that the labourers cut as clofe to the ground as poffible : grafs never thrives well that is not mown quite clofe, and the lofs in the crop of hay is very confiderable ; for one inch at bottom weighs more than feveral at top. In the making it into hay, you will be a lofer, if you have not many hands ready for the work. It fhould be fhaken out directly after the fcythe ; wind-rowed, that is, raked into rows, before the evening, fhaked out again next morning, and in the afternoon got into grafs cocks : thefe fhould be opened the morning following, and got into the great cock by night ; by which time the hay Will be well made, if no rain comes ; but, in cafe of bad weather, the procefs will be more tedious. If fuc- ceffive rains come, fo that the hay is damaged, and you are fearful of its turning out unprofitably, by all means fait it as you flack it ; a peck ftrewed in layers on the flack to a load cf hay : I it i 9 2 THE FARMER'* it will have a very great effect in fweetening it, however bad it may be, even to blacknefs ; and it has been found by experiment, that horfes and horned cattle will eat damaged hay, if falted, in preference to the be ft. THE TEAMS. CONTINUE to foil your horfes and oxen in the ftables, or under fheds, upon lucerne mown every day or two, and take care to have great plenty of litter, to fpread under them, for treading into dung. They will raife immenfe quantities of moll valuable manure with this management, and at the fame time be kept at a much cheaper rate, than if turned into any kind of pafture. KALE NBA R. 193 HORSE-HOEING. THE drilled crops in general of wheat, barley, oats, peafe or beans, mufl be horfe-hoed at leaft once in June. If they had received a firft horfe-hoeing in May, then this of June muft reverfe it : throw the earth back again to the rows, fplitting the ridge in the. middle of the interval. In thefe works of horfe-hoeing, two horfes fhould be ufed, one before the other, and the plough fhould not be carried nearer the rows of corn than four inches : even at that diftance, fome of the corn w'ill be apt to be buried. Thefe remarks are offered for thofe, who drill all forts of crops ; but the new hufban- dry cannot be recommended for white corn or peafe : beans it is incomparable for j turnips it is faid to do well for. O 194 THE FARMER'S FALLOWS. THE fallows, whether for wheat or barley, fhould this month receive a ilirring ; by which the crops of weeds* that have arifen fince the land was ploughed and harrowed fine, the latter end of Aprils or the beginning of Mtiy y will all be turned in and deftroyed : no ether tillage will be requifite this month to them. BUCK-WHEAT, IN cafe the month of May was very unfavourable to the tillage of fpring corn lands, buck-wheat may yet be ibwn ; but it mould not be ventured in the ground after the firft week or tea days. This crop bearing to be fown fo iate is, in many cafes, a mod valuable i circuna-*. KALENDAR. i 9 $ circumflance. By means of it, you have time to get the land into extreme good order, and quite free from feed-weeds. If the ftubbles are broken up in Odiober^ he muft be an indolent farmer that can- not get his land fine and clean by the end of May, SHEEP. IN this month, the flocks of ftock fheep are regularly managed : they live on the commons and fheep-walks, with little change or trouble. The ftock intended for fatting, fuch, for inftance, as wethers bought in in April or May, and intended to be fold fat from turnips or cabbages the following winter, mould be kept not like fat fheep, but through- out this month on the poorer! of yout food : they may be turned on to your commons or fheep walk, or into your bare paftures, and kept fo for eight hours O 2 a-day, 196 THE FARMER'S a-day, and then give them a bait fotf two or three hours in your clover or ray-grafs, or good natural paftures ; alter which they will be ready profitably to fold. Early in the month, the lambs of a flock mould be gelt : a work that fhouki not be delayed longer. Now alio is the time for (hearing fheep. In this work, the young -farmer mould be attentive, and fix on the Readied and moft careful of his labourers for it. If he does not keep a fhepherd, they mull be warned in a pond or river three or four days before, taking the oppor- tunity of a warm day. Two men hold the fheep, and wafh his wool quite clean ; and another or two muft attend to bring them. The Gnly rule in doing this work is to wafh them till the wool is quite clean and white. Some people have a notion, that it will kill the fifh of a pond ; but this is a > mere vulgar error : on the contrary, the vermin that are wafhed out will feed them well. 3 I* KALENDAR. i 97 In a day or two after the warning, they muft be fheared; in which bufinefs the principal care is to fee that the men do not ftick the points ( of the fhears into the fheep, nor clip or wound the fkin. A man, that understands the bufinefs well, mould attend to wind the wool into fleeces as faft as it is cut, and fhould take care to turn in all the damaged or ill-looking parts, fo as to make as hand- fome a fleece as he can. The farmer will find the advantage of fuch a con- duel, when he fells his wool. In fome countries, the whole bufinefs of warn- ing, fhearing, and winding, is done by the great : the price varies ; but it is three millings and fix-pence a fcore fheep, where the men have one milling and fix-pence a day at that fea.fon of thq year. o 3 i 9 3 THE FARMER'S FOLDING. THIS is a capital month for the fheep fold, and the benefit of this ma- nuring is fo great, that he is an idle farmer who does not make the moil of it. Now you mould fold the cabbage and turnip land, which are the crops that will fooneft fucceed the operation : the general rule for all manuring. Give each fheep a fquare yard in the fold, and go two nights on the fame land. After your cabbages are planted, and your turnips fown, if the land is very light, continue the folding on the tur- nips till they come up ; but, after that, you muft remove to your crops of grades, that are mown regularly for foiling your teams with in the ox-houfe and liable. As foon as a fpot is mown, fold it, but only one night, and immediately after horfe-hoe it. If the rows are too nar- row KALENDAR. 199 row for that operation, hand-hoe it ; and, if the crop is broad-caft, harrow it. But, whatever be the operation, it fhould follow the iheep, fo as to bury the dung directly. This ufe of the fold will laft till about a fortnight before wheat fow- ing, when you fhould move again. THISTLE THE WHEATS. IN this month, the crops of wheat, if any thiftles has arifen in them, mould be weeded. The beft manner of, per- forming the work is with a fmall hand- hook. It mould not be deferred longer than the beginning of jfune, or da- mage will be done to the crop by the' treading. o 4 200 THE FARMER'S DIG MARLE. THIS is a good feafon for marling of land : one of the moft important works that can be done in hufbandry. All farmers, that have marie under their fields, and do not make nfe of fuch a treafure, are much to be pitied : it may be called the prince of manures. In fome countries, it is the common manure ; and almoft every where to be found when dug for : in fuch places, the farmers »have nothing to do but to get money enough to refolve on the undertaking : they all acknowledge the expediency of the work, and feldom dis- pute the great profit of it ; but, in other partSj the knowledge of marie is very confined. It may perhaps be difcovered half a century before it comes into general ufe. In tracts of wafte land, or fheep walks and warrens, let at a ihilling, or KALENDAR. 201 or two fhillings and fix-pence an acre, marie being difcovered, and rendering fuch land capable of yielding noble crops of turnips, clover, and all forts of grain and pulfe ; the uncommon erTecl, and the amazing advantages made by it are fo ftriking, that the ufe fpreads faft. But, on the contrary, when marie is found under richer foils, (inclofed countries, for inftance, of ten or twelve millings an acre) the cafe is different : it will make no fuch improvement as on the poorer lands ; and, as great fortunes are not fuddenly made by the ufe of it, the farmers will not be perfuaded to ufe it with any fpirit, poffibly, not at all : they think that a rent, comparatively higher than the other tracts, will not allow of their fpending fuch fums about it : that they will not reap equal profit is undoubted ; but why not accept of twenty per cent, advantage ? Should they reject it, becaufe they cannot com- mand fifty ? If tenants are backward in making: 202 THE FARMER'* making ufe of marie in lands of ten or twelve millings an acre, their landlords mould fet them the example, and fliew them that the work will anfwer well. Marie is of various forts, and lies in various ftrata : in fome places, it is a foft, flit, foapy fubftance ; in others, it is hard as chalk, which are called ftone- marles : fomctimes you find it white, fometimes grey ; alfo blue, yellow, and a dark brown. In fome counties you have fhcll marie, which is compofed of nothing bnt marine fhells. The depths at which it lies are various : fometimes only three feet from the furface, at others ten or twelve, and in fome places fo deep, that it will not anfwer to get it at all. The flrata are alfo of different thicknefs, from two feet to twelve feet deep ; but the general circumftances in which all true marles agree, and which denote them to be real, are the effervcfccnce with acids, and the falling KALENDAR. 203 in water : the crackling in the fire is a good fign, but not alone determinate. If It is uncertain what ftrata are under a farm, it is ever advifeable to ufe the fcrew-borer, to difcover what foils are within reach. By means of that inftru- ment, you difcover, at a trifling expence, if there is any marie at command. The beft way of conveying it on to the land, if it does not lay very deep, is to open a (loping mouth, finking the pit gradually, wide enough for a cart to drive in and out ; and, when you come to the marie, to work it away circularly, and to keep the pit ten or fifteen feet deep, by which means the expence of filling the carts will be much leffened. The expence of marling, when is is thrown in this manner into the cart, will be, upon an average, three pence halfpenny per load of thirty bufhels, the filling and fpreading ; and about four pence halfpenny for the teams, carts, and drivers ; in all, eight pence avowed two bufhels per horfe per week, which will be no more than fuf- ficient to keep them in good heart, and make amends for the lofs of lucerne; with this food they may be hard worked every day throughout winter. But this fyflem of feeding is expen- iive, and there is a way to leiTen the coft greatly, which is fubftituting carrots inftead of oats, or, at leaft, inflead of the greater!: part of the oats. It will anfwer extremely w r ell to give two bufhels of carrots for one of oats : for inflance ; inflead of a quarter of oats to four horfes, to give them two bufhels only, and twelve of carrots. The proper manner of giving them, is to wafh them quite clean when ufed, and then to chop them in pieces, and put them in the manger, with plenty of chaff : they will keep the horfes in as good heart as oats, and, upon an average, in much better 32o THE FARMERS better health. If you apply the chief of your carrot crop to other purpofes, Hill you fhould determine to allow a {mail quantity weekly to all your hories, for the mere purpoie of keeping them in good health. The ox teams mould be kept on ftraw and cabbages, and, in default of the latter, on turnips ; but cabbages are much fuperior. Let them have good barley or oat ftraw always in their racks, and allow them about rifty pounds of cabbages each per diem, if they are large beafts. When you work them very hard, change the ftraw for hay. The vail faving of ufing oxen inftead of horfes, lies in the winter food : an with this management, will do abun-« dance of work; but a horfc could not be lb managed at all. Lay it down as a rule to keep both conftantly at worlj,: there is not in the range of your bufineis, elpecially if moft of your farm be arable, an objeel that requires KALENDAR. 321 requires more attention, or one, which neglected, will make you fuffer more feverely. It is the cuftom of fome far*- mers to feed their horfes varioufly, proportioned to their work, giving them no corn when they do not work, and many of them only ftraw ; but this is a bad way : for a horfe that is not always kept well, cannot perform much work when it is wanted : the beft way is ever to feed them very well, and keep them conftantlv at hard work. COWS. THE dairy of cows are now to be taken into the farm-yard, where their food muft vary according to their ftate : the dry ones muft be put altogether to hay, and thofe in full milk, in another yard, to cabbages, which it is abfolutely aflferted, on experience, will give no difagreeable tafte to the milk ; but they Y muft 322 THE FARMER'S muft have good flraw given with them-. Young cattle mould be put with the cows in milk, as they cannot 1 too well. On no account, let any of theie cattle out of the yards : they only poach and damage the grafs fields, and loie fleih in worrying after a few mouth- ful s of grafs. FATTING BEASTS. THIS is the proper time to take the large fatting oxen, that have had the fummer's grafs, and put them to turnips, cabbages, or carrots : turnips with hay will do ; but not near fo well as cabbages or carrots : both which will fat a large ox as well as any food in the world. You may either flail- iem under cover, or let them be n a. firaw yard, well littered in eith. and, if the latter, they mould have open fheds to retire under at pleafure. This fa KALENDAR. 323 laves abundance of labour ; for, if the beaft is ftall-fed, he will not thrive well, unlefs he is kept quite clean ; and they dung and ftale fo much in fatting on any of thefe foods, that the quantity of litter they foil is furprifmg. This is alfo the montfci for purchafing lean beafts of the fmaller fort, for fat- ting totally on the fame articles of food, particularly turnips and cabbages. In the months of Gclober, November, De- cember, January, February , March, and April, they will become as fat as their fize will admit ; that is profitably fo for felling to the butcher. It is this plan of appropriating the turnips and cab- bages of a farm to fatting beafts tft out the winter, in a well-littered farm- yard, that converts the ftraw, fern, flubble, &c. into mountains or dung, and improves the land more than any other method whatever. 324 THE FARMER'S HOGS. NOW alfo put your full-grown hogs to fat : a bufinefs as profitable, parti- cularly in refpe^u to the improvement of a farm by dung, as any that can be undertaken. In this matter, a farmer (unlefs the price of corn is very low) may take fome trouble, and yet make no great profit ; but I do not conceive, that profit on the hogs can be his view. If he gets the market price for his pcafe, barley, beans, buck-wheat, &c. and faves carriage upon them, at the fame time getting a fair price for his fwine lean ; he certainly makes a confiderable profit upon the whole tranfaction, though not an immediate one, as the mere fattener of hogs : but, what is of much greater con&querrce, is the raifing of rich and moft valuable manure, much better than can be gained by any other KALENDAR. 32$ other means at home ; for hog dung far exceeds that of any other cattle. Upon thefe general principles, which I appre- hend are lb juft, that nobody can con- tradict them on experience, it is not only expedient to fat the hogs bred on the farm, but alfo to purchafe others lean, as many as are necefTary for the confumption of the peafe, beans, barley, and buck-wheat of a farm. I fpeak of fmall farms and middling ones ; not very large ones on a barlsy foil, where that grain is the principal crop. And further, carrots and potatoes are roots that will fat a hog nearly as well as any grain, and at the fame time to vaflly greater profit than any corn or pulfe ; for the product of them is fo very con- fiderable, that one acre of land, fo ap- plied, will go further in fattening fwine, than many acres of the beft grain. Let therefore the induftrious hufbandman every year plant a field of potatoes or parrots for fattening hogs, which will do Y 3 it -&6 THE FARMER'S it to rreat profit, merely on the fwine, but much more fo confequentially iu SHEEP. OCTOBER is a proper time for buying in wethers in pretty tolerable order for fattening on turnips and cab-^ bages, which is a very profitable appli- cation of the crops. If the land is very- dry, it will be advifeable to herdle off parts of the field, and give them to the fheep fucceffively ; but, if the foil is at all wet, they muft be given on a dry grafs field. In either way, you work a very great improvement of the land, either of the field in which they grow, or of the grafs one, in which you feed them. 1 ; eep thefe wethers fatting until April or May^ when mutton fells better than at any other time. This cannot be KALENDAR. 327 be done en turnips ; but on cabbages it is every day practifed. MANURE GRASS. THIS, as well as the preceding month, is an excellent feafon for fprcad- ing manure on grafs lands, nor mould it be deferred later. In fome counties, it is an article in the generality of leafes, that all the dung of a farm mall be fpread- on the grafs ; but fuch covenants are totally contrary to the fpirit of good hufbandry. In the fame idea is the obliging the farmers to lay a certain number of chaldrons of lime per acre on their arable land, to ferve in lieu of dung. I will venture to afTert, that all this is moft execrable management, that it is a remnant of the fame barbarifm as making horfes draw by their tails. Lime, according to the beft chemifts, is no manure, but a mere forcer : where it Y 4 meets 328 THE FARMER'S meets with fertility to work upon, it forces the land to yield it for the noiw rimment of plants ; but, where little fuch nourifhment is to be found, it is miichievous, as it forces the foil beyond its powers, and leaves it a caput mortuum, until enlivened again with dung, or enriched by other means. Hence the propriety of liming fuch lands, whofe nature or management prevent the ex- haufti ng them of their fertility ; but thofe, which can eafily be hurt by im- proper management, fhould never be limed. The above-mentioned covenants, there- fore, are diametrically cppofite to com- mon fenfe ; obliging the farmers to dung their grafs, and lime their arable, is a conduct that tends to the utter ruin of the latter ; for arable land is eafily exhauftcd with the beft management. What there Tore muffc it he with conftant forcing by lime, and ho dung? This fyftem can only have arifen from igno- rai KALENDAR. 329 ranee of the qualities of lime. It is called a manure : theie landlords have confulted the name alone, and ranked it with dung ; whereas there cannot be two fubftances more unlike. Laying lime on grafs land is very allowable, and a proper manure ; for old turf is always rich : the furface of roots is like a dung- hill, and it is generally acquiring riches ; but, with all advantages of this kind, yet, in many paftures, the burthen of hay is by no means in proportion. Now lime being a forcer, and a diffolver of vegetable fubftances, it forces the fur- face of the foil to yield the crop more nourifhment, and, by dhTolving the old decayed roots, convert them into a manure. Let thefe effects, however, be as great as they may, ftill it is out of the power of the tenant to exhauft the land : he can only cut off or eat off the growth ; nor will it ever be in his power, though no dung be ever laid on jt, nor any cattle ever fed in it, to pre- vent THE FARMERS the foil being in the conftant ac- quifition of fertility ; for that" is the nature of a thick turf. Thofe who talk of hurting meadows by chalking and liming, fpeak againft all principles. It is ever prudent to let the tenant do what he pleafes with all his manures : he cer- tainly mull be the better judge, which field wants it moil, and which will pay beft for it. Obliging him to lay lime on his grafs lands would not be ob- jcctable ; and as a tie, and the only one worth a farthing, fiate his courle of crops. Lay a heavy penalty on two crops of white corn coming together ; make him hoe all turnips, beans, peafe, &c. The following courfes exclude a fallow, and yet will always keep the land in good order : they fuit both light and heavy lands. i. Turnips. 2. Ear'. 4. Wheat. KALEJSBAR. 331 And, , 1. Cabbages. 2. Oats. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. Let it not be imagined, that I am urging any thing againft the general manuring of grafs lands ; on the con- trary I am fenfible, that it is moft excel- lent management ; but let not all the dung be fo applied : form compofts of turf, ditch earth, marie, chalk, lime, and fome dung : fpread afhes, foot, and malt dull. Such manures are proper for grafs, and will pay well. DIG UP CARROTS. IN this month the carrot crop mould be dug up : fome perfons leave it till November ; but, in cafe of wet weather, they fuffer much by the delay. They 1 may 332 THE FARMER'S may be taken up either with direc- ted forks or with fpades, if die land is not hard, which it will not be, if the crop has been well cultivated : a little loofening of the earth with the tool, and at the fame time drawing up the carrot by the top, will take them up very quickly. They mould be left ipread over the field till dry, which will be in a day or two : then thrown into heaps and carted home ; which moving will clear the dirt from them. Unload them in a barn or fomc out-houie, and let the tops be chopped off, and given to the fvvine : then lay the roots where they are to remain. Some pile them up in a heap, and cover them with dry fand, others cover them with they will keep very well, if packed clofe together in any building ; and, if it be only a bearded one, cover them with fomc i to keep out the froih ng the application of the crop, you muft alio* ; for your horfesj to. KALENDAR. 333 to keep them in good health, in which they are very efficacious. It is com- monly faid, that carrots will only give them fine fkins ; but that is a mere fymptom of good health. Swine will pay you beft for them : you may com- pletely fat your hogs on them, and none will do better, look better, or eat better. Sows that have pigs may be kept on them ; for they breed much milk. It appears alfo, by many experiments pub- limed by the Society for the Encourage- ment of Arts, Manufactures, and Com- merce, that young pigs may be weaned on them alone, without the affiftance of milk. Oxen will fat to admiration on them ; cows eat them greedily, and they give no ill tafte to the milk, cream* or butter. Their ufe, in fhort, is uni- verfal : you can cultivate no plant that will anfwer more purpofes. 334 THE FARMERS % PLOUGH UP POTATOES. THERE is not the fame reafon for digging up this crop as for carrots: the plough among the latter is apt to cut, break, and bury them ; but not fo with potatoes : for it turns them over, damaging fcarcely 'any; and, though fome will certainly be buried the firfl ploughing, yet a harrowing will uncover many of them, and a following plough- ing moll that remain : fo that another harrowing will leave, not one in a thou- fand covered : and the great advantage of this method is the tillage, which thus takes up the crop, preparing the land excellently for wheat, to be harrowed id directly, or for barley in the fpring : if the latter, let the lafi: ploughing throw the land on to the fmall ridge, to remain dry during the winter. If your potatoes are not for immediate fale, they muft be laid KALENDAR. 335 laid up in a place fecurefrom froft, which they are more liable to damage from .than carrots. You will rind it extremely profitable to apply them to winter-feed- ing various forts of cattle, particularly hogs : they will fatten, on them : fows with pigs, and weaned pigs, alfo the common hock {wine ; all will thrive on them to very great profit. LAY UP THE FALLOWS. THIS month mud conclude " the autumnal tillage on all Riff or moL'l lands ; for, in the following month, they will probably be too wet : but on very light fandy foils, ploughing goes on all winter. Now you fhould finifh throwing the iummer fallows, deligned for barley, on to the ridge, to lie dry during the winter : the ftubbles for a fallow next year, and thofe for turnips or cabbages, and the lands defigned S36 THE FARMERS deilgned for all forts of fpring corn and pulfe, fhould now be compleated. Lay it down as an invariable rule, never to have a piece of ftubblc unploughed in 'November. It is of very great impor- tance to leave your land for winter iri fuch a manner, as the frofts will bed get into it ; which certainly is on the nar- row ridge, a greater furface being io expofed; and the new-ploughed ground will admit the influence of the air, of whatever kind, much better than hard- bound Hubble lands: and, by the froft pulverizing the land, it is in fo much the better order, either for the crops de- figned, or for a fallow. MAZAGAN BEANS. THIS is the proper feafon for fowing Mazagan beans ; and let it always be remembered, that the drill culture, for all forts of beans, is far preferable to the KALENDAR. 337 the broad-caft. Plough your land on to the four-feet ridge, and then drill each ridge with a double row, one foot afunder, or a treble row, at eight inches, and leave the J and well water-furrowed. The land fhould have been ploughed iri September on to the ridge, and at drilling arched up, fo that the beans may grow on the crown of the ridges ; by which means they are fure of being dry, and of having a good depth of mould to fhoot into, which is a matter of great confequence to a vegetable that has fuch powerful roots as the beam As this is the feafon of arranging the lands for the autumn beans, and alfo for thole fown in the fpring, it will not be im- proper to recommend to all farmers the bean culture; for crops, drilled and horfe-hoed enough to keep the land perfectly clean, are fully equal to a fummer fallow, either for barley or clover. Z 338 THE FARMER'S PLOUGH FOR CARROTS. IN October the kind muft receive the firft ploughing, that is deiigned for car- rots in the fpring. Fix- on the lighter foils of your farm ; but, if you are in general on a light land, chufe the ftiffer iields : for larger crops will be gained from a light loam, than from very light fands. Plough as deep as the land will admit, and do not fear of bringing up earth that never faw the fun before, provided it be not of a clung, ftiff, clayey nature : the deeper you go ^n foil that will crumble, the better; for, as the carrot is all tap-root, it Hands to reafon, that it muft require a very deep tillage. In this ploughing, it is of great importance to poflefs a good plough* well made for the purpofe of turning up the earth to a great depth. The farmers, where carrots are CALENDAR. 339 are cultivated, ufe only their common plough, but go twice in a furrow ; but this gains not near the depth that is really requisite, which is from eighteen inches to two feet : the befl way would be to make a plough on purpofe. . The Society at London have one in their Repofitory for Agriculture, which cuts to any depth, with a number of horfes proportioned to the depth and ftifFnef3 of the land : but the misfortune attend- ing the public is, that fuch ploughs, and other machines, are cf little general ufe, unlefs every man that pleafes can have them executed for himfelf. With a proper plough, four horfes twice in a furrow, or fix once, will ftir the, land deep enough for the purpofe. As foon as the ploughing is finifhed, water- furrow the land thoroughly, fo that it may lie a^s dry as poffible all winter, and be ready to ftir the fooner in the following fpring. Z 2 Let 340 THE FARMER'S Let the fpirited farmer apply much of his land to the culture of carrots ; for he will find no article half fo pro- fitable in his whole farm, as this well conducted. Few men will beftow at- tention or expence enough to cultivate this plant on a large fcale, notwith- ftanding the undoubted profit attending it. A fpirited farmer, that has money in his pocket, will introduce carrots inftead of turnips, in his courfe, through his whole farm. He fhould, when his foil is proper, totally fubftitute them in the room of turnips ; for it is no exaggeration to fay, that one full crop of carrots will pay better than ten of turnips. It is much to be regretted, that better ideas are not more common, of the great profit of certain crops in hufbandry, which, in a few hands, yield immenfe advantage, and would do the fame in all> if equal attention was. given. KALENDAR. 341 PLOUGH AND DIG FOR MADDER. THIS is alfo the right time to give the firft ftirring to the land defigned for madder. Let me in one word obferve, that it requires exactly the ploughing of carrots, defcribed in the preceding article ; but the foil may be ftiffer than will do for carrots. Heavy, ftifF loams, that in common converfation are called clays, will, with a proper quantity of dung, do exceedingly well for madder. The article of manuring is the foul of this culture ; the plant delights to grow in a dunghill, fo that you need not fear over-doing it: perhaps one hundred loads an acre, of black rotten dung, may be found the proper quantity for the firft crop of madder ; but then you Should determine to plant feveral crops Z 3 0I * 34^ THE FARMERS on the fame land fucceffively. Let the dung, the more the better, be fprcad on the land before the deep ploughing, and turned in by it. But a culture much fuperior to that of ploughing, is digging for madder. It mould be confidercd, that the only valuable part of this plant is the root, and that fpreads exactly in proportion to the pulverization and fertility of the foil : hence the neceihty of deep til- lage, and the land being as rich as pof- fible to the bottom. Indeed, as madder does not, like fome other plants, run down in a fingle tap-root, but fpreads a vaft number of horizontal ones, the depth need not be extravagant : three feet, I mould apprehend fufficient ; and then the proper management would be, to dig up the crop, as well as prepare the land by the fpa'lc, and plant the fame again on a frefh dunging; by which means one digging would do, both for the KALENDAR. 343 the old crop and the new. Upon the firft turning it up three feet deep, it will be abfolutely necefiary to mix in with it from fifty to an hundred loads of rotten farm-yard dung, a year and half old, that has been twice or thrice turned over. This will enrich and mellow it in a furprifing manner, and prepare it for planting in the fpring, with the greateft advantage. DIGGING FOR LICQUORICE. THE beft culture for this root, and which is common in fome parts of the kingdom, is to dig for it in the manner recommended in the preceding article; but four or five feet deep, inftead of three. This plant fends down only one tap-root, like the carrot; confe- quently the great profit of it is the length of the root, which is exactly Z 4 propor- 344 THE FARMERS proportioned to the depth of the tillage. In this hufbandry alfo, as well as that of madder, the fame land is preferable for fucceflive crops, as one digging ferves both for the old crop and the new. For licquorice alfo you muft manure very richly : it will not anfwer well without this attention. Leave the land well water-furrowed for the fpring. NOVEMBER. KALENDAR. 345 NOVEMBER. FARM YARD, THIS month you begin to expe-> ricnce the conduct of the farm yard, on the principles already laid down. Obferve now to keep all your cattle confined : let none of them wander about the fields, where they can get nothing to eat ; but, if it proves wet weather, will do much mifchief by poach- ing. Litter all the yards completely from your ftacks of ftraw, ftubble, or fern : fo that, be the feafon ever fo wet, the cattle may not tread into the layer S*6 THE FARMERS layer at bottom of marie or earth, nor ever lie wet. As faft as . the litter is trodden into dung, or becomes quite wet, cut frehh dices down from your ilacks, and fpread it about. Have an eye to the horfe-keepers, that they ufe plenty of litter ; alfo that your fatting- ilalls, cow-houfes, ox-houies, hog-fties, &c. be all kept quite clean littered ; for this is the bell and cheapen: way of raifing manure. THRASHING. AS foon as the cattle are taken into the yards, the thrafhers muft be fet to work, to fupply the lean beads with flraw, and they muft be .kept clofe and regularly to it ; and you fhould obferve well, that your ftock of cattle be pro- portioned to the quantity of your ftraw, that they may be carried through the winter KALENDAR. 347 .winter on it ; confequently the number of thrafhers muft be appointed upon the fame plan; but this exa&nefs is not re- common j that is, the teams are keptf at KALENDAR. 3 s 9 at a considerable expence in the fhble, and do nothing to pay the expence, except now and then carrying out a Joad of corn to fale. Thjs is not a con- du& to be followed by a man, who would make the greateft profit of every article about his farm, Both horfes and oxen muft now be regularly employed in carting manure from the neareft town ; or, if the foil is very light and dry, iu carrying marie, chalk, &c, &c. PLOUQH UP LAYS. IT is by this time wet enough to begin to break up grafs lands : that is a work that: fhould never be done while the land is dry j for it will not then turn up in clean, well-cut furrows, Ploughing grafs lands is a very good piece of hufbandry, when they are worn out and over-run with mofs and other C c 3 rubbifh^ 3 9 o THE FARMER', rubbifh, or hide-bound. To keep land under fuch unprofitable turf is very bad management : it fhould, by all means, be broken up, and kept in a courfe of tillage for three or four years, and then laid down again ; by which conduct four times the profit will arife, more than ever could be gained from keeping it in lay. The firft crop taken from grafs land varies much : in fome places they har- row in black oats, in others white ones ; in fome they harrow in hog peafe; in others dibble them in with an iron with feveral fharp points. Some fpirited gentlemen have broke their lays up by trench-ploughing j one plough going firft, and taking off a thin flice, and then another following in the fame fur^ row, and raifing moulds to bury the firft ; on which they harrow in what- ever feed they pleafe ; but chiefly peafe or oats. This, is excellent hufbandry, suk{ KALENDAR. 39 i and particularly worthy of imitation on waflc lands, that are much over-run with mole or' ant-hills, or other fmall inequalities of furface. CART MANURE. IN cafe of frofts, that are fharp enough to make arable lands bear carting upon, it is proper to carry dung, or compoft prepared for the purpofe, on to the fallows laid up for barley : leave it in the heaps, without fpreading, till you plough and fow ; for much of the virtue of dung waflies out, if left long fpread before it is turned in. Upon clay land, in feveral parts of England^ they fummer-fallow for barley, and throw the land up in the fharp, nar- row ridge, in autumn, water-furrowing well : they then take all opportunities of frofts to carry on the compofts : thefe C c 4 they }p* THE FARMER'S they form by carting dung to the len- ders of the fields, and mixing it up with the turf and ditch earth, leaving it in autumn ready to be carried on. By this management they get vail crops, even to feven and eight quarters per. acre : they always fow clover with the barley ; but their land is fo rich in this method, that they roll it in after- the "barley is up, to avoid its riling too quick, and damaging the corn : this clover }hey mow for hay twice, and on the imbble fow wheat ; which is, upon the whole, an excellent fyftem. SHEEP. THIS month your forward cwts may be expe&ed to Lamb, when you mould be attentive to keep them much better than they have been in common through the autumn : they mould have plenty KALENDAR. 395 mty of turnips or cabbages, as fad as they lamb ; for cattle that have young- require as good keeping as thofe that are fatting; and, if you let them have a rack of hay always in the field, }t will be much the better for them. Draw the turnips or cabbages, and give them cm a dry grafs field. One great advantage of cabbages over turnips, is the eafe of cutting them, in cafe of the hardeft frofts, when turnips cannot be- gotten; In cafe of extreme bad weather, it iyill fcje advifeable to bring your fheep under fhelter. Moft farmers are fen- fible of this, and drive them on fuch pccafions into their hay-ftack yard* which is not a bad way ; but much in- ferior to giving them their hay in racks, in a warm yard, with fheds around it for them to feed under. The ufe of fuch a yard is fo very great, that I wonder they are not more common. 5 to 394 THE PARMER's In driving mows, ilect, and rain, the injury fheep take in the open fields is very great. Another circumftance, which ought to have great weight, is the raifing plenty of rich dung : by keeping your fheep in very bad weather all day, and conftantly of nights, in a yard proportioned to their number, you fold them perhaps in the moft advanta- geous method of all others; for, if a layer of turf or marie be fpread over the bottom of the yard in autumn, and under all the fheds, and the -fheep are kept well littered with ftraw, fern, or ftubble, fo as ■ to be always per- fectly clean and dry, they will in the- winter make a great quantity of moft '"excellent- manure. KALENDAR. 395 COWS. ATTEND well to your cows, ob- ferving to draw off thofe from the ftraw- yard, that look like calving, within three weeks, and put them with the young cattle upon better food, or dfc bait them twice a day in the cow-houfe on turnips or cabbages, and hay. After calving, feed them as well as fatting cattle. SWINE. THIS is the middle of the feafon for making the right profit by hogs, which is their dung. See that all your fows with pigs are well littered, fo as always to be perfectly clean, with bright, healthy-looking {kins. Alio your 39* THE FARMERS your fat hogs fhould be conftantly lit r tered up to their bellies. If they are not kept perfectly clean, you may depend on lofing money, by not making fo much dung as you ought. If you gain pretty near the market price of your hogs lean, of your barley, peafe, potatoes, and carrots, your car-, ri^ge deducted, you will do well j for the dung will pay for the litter* an4 Jeave a very confiderable balance t° pay the lofs on the other articles, and the farmer's profit on the whole. How-^ ever, in the worft of times, he can lofe only by the hogs and the corn ; but, if he ufcs many roots to afljft in fattening, his profit throughout the whole bufmefs will be great, Calendar. $ 9 ; FENCES, &EEP your hedgers and ditcher? dofe to work all this month : fo that they may be ready for bther work iri the fpringi in cafe you want them. The three firft winters of your leafe mould get the fences into good order ; after- wards divide them into twelfth parts* and do one every year, which will bring the whole to tegular cuttings; Oh no account be perfuaded, wherever you live, to do your hedges in any other than the plafhing way. MANURE GRASS LANDS; CONTINUE to carry on your compofts, that have been well mixed together, to your grafs-lands; but, unlefs 398 THE FARMER'S unleis in fharp frofts, ufe fmall one- horfe carts with nine-inch wheels, with which you will move on the land without doing it any damage. Farm- yard, and other dung, I do not think mould be applied to the grafs land, but to the arable, in which it anfwers much better; and compofts of earth, chalk, marie, lime, foot, malt-duft, &c. &c. laid on the grafs, which will agree per- fectly well with the grafs — much better than with arable. DIG MANURES. UPON light and very dry foils, it will be proper to keep the marie, chalk, or clay-carts at w r ork : indeed, they fhould never flop ; for, when a man hires fuch foils for improvement, .the fooncr they receive the manure, the greater will be his profit; for, in many countries, KALENDAR. 399 countries, landlords, after the firft leafe, either raife the rents confiderably, or turn the tenants out. It is therefore highly incumbent on them to regain their expence, with profit, within the term of the firft leafe, and that can only be done by marling very quick at firft. THE END. •Lib: :;ry N. C. State College