SECRETARY'S REPORT. 71 



greater fertility but in greater cleanliness, it being easy thus to rid 

 the soil of noxious weeds which had become thoroughly established 

 in the soil, by reason of imperfect or slovenly cultivation. Fal- 

 lowing was enforced by the Hebrew law, which commanded that 

 every seventh year the land be permitted to rest, and although the 

 primary object of this enactment was undoubtedly of a typical or 

 figurative character, we may see in this, as in numerous other 

 instances in the Mosaic economy, a thorough fitness to the circum- 

 stances by which they were surrounded, and a special adaptation to 

 the requirements of their system of husbandry. 



It was practised by the Romans, and by them introduced into 

 Endand, where it has been more or less in vogue ever since the 

 Roman invasion; but -notwithstanding this, it is said not to have 

 obtained in Scotland until the end of the sixteenth century, and that 

 a Mr. Walker, of East Lothian, was the first who ever attempted 

 systematically to fallow land there. 



" Likn all innovators and improvers, he had to endure for a time the ridicule 

 or contempt of his neighbors, who pityingly concluded that he was either 

 insane for allowing a portion of his land to lie waste a whole year, or so 

 poverty stricken as to be unable to find seed to sow it with. So successful, 

 howevfer, were Mr. Walker's repeated trials in summer fallowing land, that 

 twenty years after its introduction the practice had become nearly general 

 throughout East Lothian." 



The success attending the operation of fallow depends in part, as 

 above remarked, upon the greater cleanliness given to the soil by 

 the destruction of weeds, which rob the soil of so much nourish- 

 ment — more upon the improved mechanical condition, the greater 

 fineness and mellowness induced by the action of frost, and by the 

 repeated plowings to which it is subjected, but probably most of all 

 to chemical changes which are produced during its existence. These 

 are chiefly the evolution of a new supply of plant food in the form 

 of alkalies and soluble silicates, which are furnished from the disin- 

 tegration of the soil, and of the rocks in the soil, which progresses 

 steadily during its continuance, and also the more thorough and 

 complete decomposition of the inert organic matter also contained in 

 the soil, which now enterino; into new combinations with the elements 

 furnished by air and moisture, becomes of increased value. 



But in the course of time it was discovered that the benefits of a 



