Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/386

Rh 360 AGRICULTURE [LEGUMINOUS mining the quantity of seed to be used. When it is in high heart and likely to harrow kindly, a less quantity will suffice than under opposite conditions. In breaking up a tough old sward, even 6 bushels per aero may be too little to sow. The following very interesting experiment bearing on this point was made in the county &amp;lt; if Fife : &quot;Mr Gulland, Wemyss, offered a sweepstakes in IS 50, that 4 bushels of oats, sown per Scotch acre, in poor land, would yield a better produce than 8 bushels sown under similar conditions. The late Mr Hill, maintaining the contrary, accepted the sweepstakes, and a number of others took up the same. Experiments were made by Mr Dingwall, Ramornie, and Mr Buist, Hattonhill : In Mr Buist s experiments, &quot; 4 bush, sown yielded 28 bush, per acre, 34 tt&amp;gt; per bush. 8 bush, sown yielded 36 ,, ,, 34| Ib ,, &quot; 4 bush, sown yielded 45 bush, per acre, 384 Ib F er tush. 8 bush, sown yielded 49 ,, 39 Ib The advocates for thin seeding will of course regard even the least of these qiiantities as foolishly redundant. It is quite true, that if the land is in good heart, the crop will ultimately stand close on the ground from a very small seeding ; but it will take two or three weeks longer to do this than if the land had been fully stocked with plants from the first, by giving it seed enough. In our precarious climate, where a late harvest and bad crops usually go together, it is of the utmost importance to secure early, uniform, and perfect ripening ; and as liberal seeding tends directly to promote such a result, practical farmers will do well to take care how they omit such a simple means of attaining so important an end. We believe that it is on the principle now indicated that the superior result, both as respects quantity and quality of produce, in the double- seeded lots in the experiments now cited, is to be explained. As with wheat, the vigour and productiveness of the oat is much enhanced by frequent change of seed. Our agricultural authorities usually assert that the change should, if possible, always be from an earlier climate and better soil. This is undoubtedly true as regards high-lying districts ; but with a good soil and climate we have always seen the best results with seed from a later district. A homely old couplet tersely expresses the experience of our ancestors in this matter of the changing of seed-corn by directing us to procure &quot; Oats from the hills, bere from the sea, Gude wheat and pease, wherever they be.&quot; On poor hard soils it is usually remunerative to apply a cwt. of guano per acre to the oat crop, sowing it broad cast, and harrowing it in along with the seed. As much additional produce is thus ordinarily obtained as more than pays for the manure, and the land is, in all respects, left in better condition for the succeeding green crop. In the case both of very light and strong clay soils, we have obtained excellent results by applying a liberal dressing of farm yard dung in autumn to grass-land about to be broken up for oats. By using in this way the dung produced during the summer months, we have obtained abundant crops of oats from portions of land which, but for this, would have yielded poorly; and, at the same time, by applying the bulky manure at this stage of the rotation, instead of directly for the succeeding green crop, an important saving of time and labour has been effected, as we shall have occasion to notice when treating of turnip- culture. When the young oat plants have pushed their second leaf, it is always beneficial to use the roller, as it helps to protect the crop from the evil effects of drought, and Agricultural Gazette, 20th November 1852. facilitates the reaping of it. The oat frequently suffers much from a disease called &quot;segging&quot; or &quot;tulip root,&quot; which appears to be caused by the presence of a maggot in the pith of the stems close to the ground. On land which is subject to this disease it is advisable not to sow early. A dressing of lime is also believed to be serviceable as a preventative. On muiry soils this crop is also not unfre- quently lost by what is called &quot; slaying.&quot; This seems to result from the occurrence of frosty nights late in spring, when the crop is in its young stage, which, when grown on such soils, it cannot withstand. The application of largo dressings of lime to light muiry soils greatly aggravates this tendency to slaying in the oat crop. The only effectual remedy is to improve the texture of the soil by a good coat ing of clay. Oats yield about 1 ton of grain and 1 J ton of straw per acre. Section 4. Rye. The extensive cultivation of this grain in any country being alike indicative of a low state of agriculture, and of a poor style of living among its peasantry, it must be regarded as a happy circumstance that it has become nearly obsolete in Great Britain. It is still occasionally met with in some of our poorest sandy soils, and patches are occa sionally grown elsewhere for the sake of the straw, which is in estimation for thatching, for making bee-hives, and for stuffing horse-collars. Its cultivation as a catch crop, to furnish early food for sheep in spring, is on the increase. Section 5. LEGUMINOUS CROPS Beans. The only members of this family statedly cultivated for their grain are beans and pease. Before the introduction of clover and turnips these legumes occupied a more important place in the estimation of the husbandman than they have done since. Indeed, in many districts naturally well adapted for the culture of turnips, that of beans and pease was for a time all but abandoned. Recently, however, increasing precariousness in the growth of clover, and even of turnips, where they have been sown on the same ground every fourth year for a lengthened period, has compelled farmers to return to the culture of beans and pease for the mere purpose of prolonging the intervals in the periodic recurrence of the former crops. But it is found, in regard to the bean itself, in districts where it has long occupied a stated place in rotations of six or seven years, that its average produce gradually diminishes. We have thus an additional illustration of the importance of introducing as great a variety of crops as possible into our field culture. It is on this principle that beans and pease are now again extensively cultivated on dry friable soils. Winter beans, or pease of some early variety, are generally preferred in such cases. The grain of these legumes, though partially used for human food, is chiefly consumed by horses and by fattening cattle and sheep. Being highly nutritioiis, they are well adapted for this purpose. By growing beans on a limited portion of the land assigned to cattle crops, a larger weight of beef and mutton can be produced from a given number of acres, than by occupying them wholly with roots, forage, and pasturage. Several varieties of field beans are cultivated in Great Britain, such as the common horse bean, the tick, the Heligoland, and the uinter bean. The latter was introduced into England about the year 1825, and there rises steadily in estimation. It has been tried in many parts of Scotland, and proves quite hardy, but is objected to from the exceeding shortness of its straw. But for this, it is a valuable acquisition, as it ripens so much earlier than the spring-sown varieties. Beans should never be sown on land that is foul. By diligent horse and hand hoeing, land that is clean to begin with can be kept so under beans, and left in fine condition for carrying a white
 * In Mr Dingwall s experiments,