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The new farmer's calendar : or monthly remembrancer for all kinds of country business ; comprehending all the material improvements in the new husbandry with the management of live stock, inscribed to the farmers of Great Britain / by a farmer and breeder [i. e. J. Lawrence]
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FARMER'S CALENDAR.[| APRIL.

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the last article, and to much higher profit; they grow it upon their deepest and best sandy loams, on narrow ridges,commonly on land fresh broken up. The plants, in a moist and favourable season, appear in a fortnight, and in three weeksaftermay be hoed and set out to the distance of six to ten inches. As the goodness of the plant consists in its size and the juiciness of its leaf, much depends on constant hoeing and weeding, that the land may be kept in a garden-state. From this care, three or four crops or gatherings will be produc- ed in succession; but the two first are the. best. The leaves are gathered at the full growth, and on the first appearance of change. They are cut into hand-baskets by women and children, who deliver them into a deep cart at the edge of the field. After two cuttings, the crop is suffered to go to seed for the next year, if seed be wanted, but if only one crop be. taken, the seed will be finer.The pods turning dark in colour, the seed is ripe; the stalks are then reaped like wheat, and spread abroad, and in favourable weather the seed may be thrashed in a few days.

The green crops being carted home, are thrown into a mill, constructed with a heavy itron-ribbed roller, something hike that used for bruising bark, which cuts and bruises the Woad to a pulp: it is thenlaid in small heaps, pressed close and smooth, and as the crust formed on the outside, cracks, it is closed again to_ preserve the strength of the substance. After lying a fortnight in this state, the heaps are broken up, the outside worked into a mass, and the whole formed by the hand, or sometimes by wooden moulds, into oval balls,

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