No. 85.] 119 



the following crop. In all countries where practiced, it is used al- 

 most exclusively as a preparative for the wheat crop, and by many 

 good farmers is deemed indispensable to keeping the land in good 

 condition, and securing good yields of that important grain. The 

 number of plowings given is made to depend on the circumstances of 

 the soil, the difficulties attending making it clean, and the time at the 

 command of the farmer. With less than three plowings, and as many 

 harrowings, the treatment scarcely deserves the name of fallowing — 

 while as many as five or six are not unfrequently given, particularly 

 in the heavy clay districts of Great Britain. The question to be de- 

 cided is, whether this great amount of labor may not be dispensed 

 with ; the soil kept clean and in good condition ; and a crop taken 

 from it, during the time that it lies idle while in fallow. 



There can certainly no good reason be given why soils may not 

 produce a continued succession of crops, if the conditions requisite for 

 the production of each are present ; such as the proper proportion 

 and mixture of the several important earths, the presence of the re- 

 quired salts and manures for the growth and nutrition of the plants, 

 and the soil be deepened and loosened for the reception of the seeds, 

 and the spread of their roots. As it is certain, however, that some 

 plants derive more of their substance from the soil than others, or 

 have a tendency to exhaust it rapidly of some one or more essential 

 elements, it is clear, that a constant succession of the same crop on 

 any soil, or under any system of management, can scarcely be possi- 

 ble, or advisable. The question therefore is not whether a constant 

 repetition of the same crop, may not enable the farmer to dispense 

 with the fallow, but whether some other one, less exhausting of the 

 elements of the main or wheat crop, may not fill the interval usually 

 appropriated to the fallow, without injury to the soil, or to the suc- 

 ceeding grain crop. 



We believe that some such crop may be substituted on all good 

 conditioned soils, and that where a farm is once in a proper state for 

 cropping, when it contains the elements of fertility, and is mainly ex- 

 empt from those great drawbacks on farm products, weeds, there is 

 no necessity for losing every third, or fifth year, as the case may, in 

 summer fallowing. But where the soil is not so conditioned, and 

 where a course of cleansing more thorough than can be derived from 

 hoed, or from green crops is required, then summer fallows are not 



