Various implements have been recommended for expediting the work of reaping, but the Cradle and the Hainault scythes are unquestionably the best. These may always be used for barley and oats, on level and cleanly cultivated ground, where the corn stands upright; otherwise the sickle and common reaping-hook will be found most advantageous.

THRASHING AND WINNOWING.

Oats and barley are for the most part thrashed with the flail, the straw being required for the cattle, which are supplied with it from time to time by the thrasher as he proceeds with his work: but for wheat, the thrashing-mill should always be used, it being cheaper, and, in all respects, better than the flail.

The thrashing-mill may be worked by horses, or by steam or water power. When driven by steam or water, one or two winnowing machines, according to the power employed, are usually attached to the mill, which effects a great saving of time and cost in preparing the grain. A powerful machine will thrash and winnow from two to three hundred bushels a day; and reckoning every expense, the cost of preparing the grain for market by this means will be found not to exceed a penny per bushel whereas by thrashing with the flail, it would be double that amount, besides the waste of grain, which would add considerably to the cost.

The thing to be attended to in using the thrashing machine, is to give it a regular motion, and to have it equally fed with the corn. One man employed to feed the mill with corn; a man or two boys to carry the sheaves, and a boy or a woman to untie and hand them to the feeder. One or more persons must likewise be employed to rake up the thrashed straw, and carry it to the straw-yard.

Portable thrashing machines are frequently let out to hire, and sometimes two or more neighbouring farmers join in keeping a machine for their common use, a practice well worthy of being adopted, wherever

the farms are so small as not to make a separate machine for each necessary.

Winnowing-machines, or fanners, are required upon every farm, whether large or small, and they may either be used separately, or in conjunction with the thrashingmill, according to circumstances. Some persons prefer the hand fanners, which are thought to work steadier than when driven by machinery, and to clean the grain more thoroughly; but either will do.

By the process of winnowing, chaff, bits of straw, seeds of weeds, and other refuse, are separated from the grain, which is then tailed, and finally dressed with riddles and sieves in the clean corn-room, the tailed corn being separated and kept for common use, and for the cattle and poultry. It is of great importance to the farmer that his corn should be thoroughly cleaned and dressed, its value in the market depending in no slight degree upon the manner in which this is done; and the grain ought not to be thrashed until it is required for market, for it will shrivel and lose in weight by keeping.

HAY-MAKING.

The following rules for conducting this very impor tant operation, have been practised for a considerable period, and generally found successful; on which account they are here recommended for adoption.

Cut the grass when it has come to its full growth, and before it has ripened its seed. If cut when in a growing state, the unripe juices of the plant are apt to bring on violent heat and fermentation, and thus deprive the crop of much of its substance and nourishment.

Never shake the hay out of the swathe on the day it is cut, but on the second day shake all that was cut on the previous day, giving it two turnings. By shaking it out the day on which it is cut, the hay is reduced much by the heat of the sun; but by leaving it in the swathe, it' souks its own sap,' and will be reduced very little afterwards.

Never leave the hay on the ground the night it is

shaken out, but gather it up into small grass cocks that evening. By so doing, the dew goes off the ground much earlier the next morning, and one shaking out of the grass cocks on comparatively dry ground, will be of more service than three turnings, if it is left spread the night before.

After shaking out the grass cocks, turn the hay twice that day, and gather it into windrows in the evening, and then make it into cocks containing about a cwt. each. Let the hay remain in cock the next day, in order to soak the sap,' as above-noticed; for by exposing the grass too often to the sun, it becomes much reduced in bulk and nourishment.

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The next step is to gather these cocks into plats, about eight cocks in each, and if the day is likely to be fine, shake them all out, taking care not to spread them too wide; as by this means the hay would be too much exposed to the sun, and be injured in colour. Carefully turn the hay thus spread out, at least twice that day; and in the evening put each plat into one cock, so that they may be safe from rain, should there be any, but do not allow them to be tramped.

In this state let the cocks remain, without further disturbance; and on the day after pull them all round, observing to leave them as small in the bottoms as possible, in order to admit a free circulation of air under and about them--then rake them carefully, to secure them against storms; and continue this system until the whole of your hay is made up.

The above operations are supposed to be carried on under favourable weather; but when the weather is bad or broken, turn all the small cocks often, and double them continually, without shaking any out, until you have them fit to go into the large cocks; and then, if the day is likely to hold fine, shake them out thoroughly, and make them up the same evening.

When the hay is thus all made up, give it no time in the cock, but draw it in immediately, beginning with that first made; and if there be any newly-laid meadow, mix this hay carefully with that of the old meadow, and shake a small portion of salt on each course.

By the above process, if the weather proves favourable, there are only three days occupied in making the hay, until it is put into finished cocks. The hay thus made up may heat moderately, when stacked, but this will rather be advantageous than otherwise.

Tarpaulins for securing the rick, when drawing in the hay, will be found of the greatest advantage; and no farmer should be without these safeguards. They may be expensive in the first instance, but the loss which one rainy day might occasion in the quality of the hay, would in all probability be greater than the cost of the tarpaulins, the use of which will enable the farmer to keep the rick open until the whole crop is brought in, without risk or inconvenience.

GREEN CROPS.

Green crops may be said to comprise all the cultivated vegetables which are not included under the designations of corn and pulse; and it is on the judicious management of this description of crop, that the improvements which have taken place in modern husbandry are mainly founded.

Without the cultivation of green crops, there can be no adequate rotation of crops established, and the land would of necessity become exhausted of the particular kinds of nourishment required for the production of the different species of grain; and must then, as was of old the practice, be thrown out of cultivation, and left to rest for a longer or shorter period, to recruit its powers. The intervention of a green crop alternately with grain, prevents the necessity for this rest or fallow, and consequently prevents the waste and loss which would thereby be occasioned to the farmer.

Without green crops, it will moreover be impossible to provide support the year round for the number of cattle necessary to furnish the farmer with manure for keeping his land in heart, and in a state of fertility capable of yielding a remunerating return for the labour

expended upon it. Unless there is a due supply of manure, there will be deficient crops-without a sufficient number of cattle, there will not be the proper supply of manure and without green crops, the farmer cannot keep the requisite number of cattle; so that, in reality, the whole of our present system of agriculture may be said essentially to rest upon the due cultivation and management of green crops.

It is the same with husbandry on the Continent, more especially in Flanders, where the utmost attention is paid to the cultivation of green crops, in the skilful management and judicious use of which, in stall-feeding their cattle, the Flemish farmers have attained to great excellence; and they are thereby enabled, with very inferior means in other respects, to compete with our best agriculturists in the amount of produce obtained from the land, and in keeping up its condition for a long series of years.

The green crops usually cultivated, consist of turnips, mangel-wurzel, cabbages, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, red clover, American cow-grass, Italian rye-grass, tares, rape, and lucerne; and of each of these we will now proceed to give some account, with brief directions for their cultivation.

TURNIPS.

The turnip was originally introduced from Germany about the year 1730 by Lord Townsend, who thereby conferred a most important benefit on British agricul ture. It was first cultivated as a field crop in this country, in the county of Norfolk, where it still continues to be more extensively used than in any other part of England.

Before the introduction of turnips as a field crop, it was difficult to manage light soils to advantage, the land becoming soon exhausted by the repeated growth of corn; and as no regular rotation of green crops was then known, the land, when thus exhausted, was necessarily left fallow, or thrown into pasture to recruit. The