190 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY

APPENDIX. No. XV.

Letter from Mr. Raynes of Stonehill, on Cultivation

of a Sand Farm. SIR,

Agreeable to your request, IT inclose you a few hints on the practical part of agriculture, as performed by myself upon a poor sandy soil, much like what you gene- rally find upon the forest; first I begin with a fallow, which

I endeavour to clean as well as possible; if an order could

be had after harvest it would be of great advantage, but at any rate plough it as soon as you have done your Michael- mas seed time, taking care to turn over all the soil, and leave it as open as you can; as soon in the spring as you think your land will work, begin to harrow or scarify, but I should recommend the latter. The scarifier isan invention of the Rey. James Cooke, Red Lion Square, London, and which is particularly useful in sandy soils; for I have applied it this summer in my turnip fallows, and can say I never had them in better tilth, notwithstanding the wetness of the summer. The scarifier is worked by two horses, which will do eight acres in one day, and after the first ploughing, willanswer equal, if notbetter than a ploughing: this I recommend to be drawn across the fallow, after which make use of the harrows and get off the twitch, then scarify again, drawing it the contrary way from what you did before, when you will soon get rid of your twitch. The scarifier has only one row of teeth; if your fallow is very foul, put in only four teeth; after you have got it tolerably clear, put in the remainder, which will colleé all the short twitch; this implement has one very excellent qualification above all the cultivators I have seen, namely, that it does not break or cut the twitch, and this implement by perform-