FARM MEMORANDA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 116, 5 July 1873, Page 7

FARM MEMORANDA.

MB RODWELI’s FARM ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. At a recent meeting of the Ixworth Farmers’ Club Mr Greene, M.P., called attention to a report of Mr Rod well to the Board of Agriculture on the improvements he effected by claying and marling, which he rightly thought deserved attention. Mr Rodwell’s paper was addressed to the Right Honorable the Board of Agriculture, and went on to state

I wish at present to call your attention to the effect of digging and spreading clay or marl upon poor dry heaths, producing fern, gorse, but chiefly ling, originally of so small a value, at best yielding but a scanty support to ill fed sheep. The late Rev Mr Lathbury, father to the present rector of this parish, was offered any quantity of this heath at 4d per acre, about fifty years ago. The farm on which I have been working consists of 1400 acres 700 of which were of this sort of heath ; it had been occupied by my prodecessor, Mr Garnham, for 36 years, at the rent of £l4O and never more than £l5O, the landlord Baptist Lee, Esq) paying tithe, nor did Mr Garnham at that time do more than make a living on it. In 1771 it Was valued for raising the rent, and £350 • year demanded, not tithe free, at which Mr Garnham refused it, as did several other farmers who examined the land ; *nd when I engaged it at that rent, I was pronounced a ruined man by most of my acquaintances who knew the farm,, I had lease for 13 years. My first operation was to enclose with thorn hedges, tti&tl or clay, and break up 300 acres of the heath ; and in the first seven years of *he lease, I finished what I meant to im'ftin* 8 * Q rae - I marled or clayed wO acres at 70 loads an acre, being 42,000 *Wge tumbril loads. In this work three teams were employed, two of my own and ? ne I hired for several years. I lost nine ‘forses, attributed to feeding on pea-straw irom the new broken heath, a circum,t&uce that deserves the attention of improvers. In the eleventh year of my eaß « I applied to my landlord for a re upon whiok the farm was valued gain by Mr Hare, the surveyor, at Peterorough, and I took a fresh lease of fifteen *® ars » to commence at the termination of 7 old one, at the rent of £4OO. I immediately clayed and broke up 200 more , 100 loads an acre, 40 bushels per a > inclosing all with quick hedges, and

ditches five feet wide and four feet deep ; after this I improved in the same manner 100 acres more. In the two leases of 28 years I clayed or maided 820 acres. The same has been clayed or marled a second time, at 70 loads an acre, so that the number of loads I have carried in all is little short of 140,000. Upon taking a third lease, I was, in 1798-99, particularly steady to this work, and in 49 weeks and three days carried 1175 cubical yards, paying by measure of pits, and not by loads. In this business of carrying clay or marl I have practised hand barrowing. The men can make good earning at lOd per yard, wheeling 30 rods, and down to 7d a yard at shorter distances, and I am inclined to think that if we had workmen used to the operation and handy at it, like those employed in navigation, that this method would be, of all others, the cheapest, especially on heavier soils. But by far the greatest part has been done by tumbrils, the expense of which, put out at 5d per yard for a team, at 2£d a yard for labor, paying for laying, picks, wedges, &c, also the stones that rise, increase the whole expense to 8d per yard for labor. One hundred and forty thousand yards have cost me £4958, excepting the small proportion hired at a half-penny yer yard lower.

I come now to mention a few circumstances which I hope may tend to render this paper useful to others not having the experience I acquired. I shall use but few words, but they shall be founded on positive experience or attentive observations. Clay is much to be preferred to marl on these sandy soils, some of which are loose, and even a black sand. By clay is to be understood a grey clay loam, some of it brick earth, and all has, with vinegar, a small effervescence. Marl is a white chalky substance, and effervesces strongly with acids. I make it a universal rule on a second improvement to lay clay on the fields marled before, sometimes marl where clay was laid before ; but this is not general, as clay answers best on the whole. In the tillage of improved lands I am attentive never to over crop. My usual rotation has been, Ist, turnips ; 2nd, barley ; 3rd, clover, trefoil, or rye-grass, one or two years ; 4th, peas ; sth, wheat. On some I have sown oats, or else a layer, and omitted peas and wheat, which is more favorable to the land, and should, with larger leases, have done more so. Peas, it is true, are an improving crop, but the two coming together use, perhaps, the marl too quickly. I have broken some heath up, and sowed oats and even wheat to improve on the stubble; but sowing four bushels I have gained but ten, and of wheat not more than three coombs at first breaking. My crops, by managing attentively, have been good. I have had 11| coombs of barley per acre, and these on very large fields. I have 14 coombs an acre and fine wheat after them. On 90 acres, clayed 100 loads an acre, I had often two crops, the one turnips, the other barley. On 75 acres 16 coombs an acre, and by oats on 15 acres (poorer land) 10 coombs an acre., These crops, for the soil, are great; but in general my products have been highly to my satisfaction. In regard to other manures my farm has had the fold from 40 to 48 score sheep, that manure, one year with another, 150 acres, and I am never without bullocks for increasing the farmyard dung. I top fold wheat from the beginning of November till Christmas and even to February, and venture it on clayed lands at the hazard of frosts at sunrise, which sometimes injures it much. Of all mucking, that on clayed lands pay me best. I know there are many farmers in Norfolk who prefer laying it on for wheat, the turnips to have it at second hand, but I prefer the other method ; and let me note that I use long muck, to choose, which I thiuk far better than turning, mincing, and rotting. Here also are different opinions. I speak only from my own experience. Wheat stubble, I think, should always be whelmed in for turnips. I once ploughed in a large crop of buckwheat for turnips, and the crop was so much worse than the rest of the field that they were not penned regularly for the sheep. Yet with this disadvantage the barley following was better—that were the turnips were, much better. I have dibbled largely, and with good success, and think it the best method. I approve much of the drill roller as the next best. In tilling these improved sands, it is a common observation in Norfolk that shallow ploughicg is necessary to preserve the pan. I have not found this the case here, but on the contrary that the clay and marl works the better the more soil it has to incorporate with. Having thus stated shortly the general management of my improvements, I come now, with your permission, to the general result. Rent will speak this. It is stated that twenty-eight years ago the rent of the farm was £l5O a year, tithe free, and that it was then raised to £350 a year, tithe payable. I may venture to assert that at that rent, without improvements, it might have so stood on my landlord’s rent roll till Doomsday, for a mere living could only have been made on it even in good times. But upon my taking my third lease, commencing 1799, it was

raised to £6OO a year, at the same time to the full value —in other words the present rent is £7OO a year. Thus while, with the blessing of God, I have done well on the farm, and have put five children into the world out of twelve living, I have added £350 a year to the value of the estate, which at thirty years’ purchase is £10,500; and relative to the public at large I may venture to assert that these 1400 acres have in the last twenty-eight years yielded £30,000 worth of corn, meat, and wool more than they did in the twenty-eight preceeding; a fact which tends strongly to show the national improvements in agriculture, and also the wisdom of establishing a public board for promoting and encouraging such exertions as may be deemed laudable. “ Josiah Rodwell, Nov. 4, 1799.”