1803. Rrjieia of the New Far?jicr^s Calendar, 197 



of the fuUcft information. We might have gone farther, and 

 not been in an error; we might have ilarcd that he was no farm- 

 er who gave fuch an advice, and had not witneffed the operations 

 he recommended. 



Let anv perfon refiecl, for a moment, on the condition of the 

 <;reateft part o: lami in an avera^^e of years, during the rrionths 

 when fprini^ feeds are fovvn If fuch have been ploughed in the 

 early part 01 winter, the bottom, at the time of the fecond 

 ploughing, is raw and wet, even when the furface is dry, and in 

 a workable Hate. When attempted to be ploughed in the fpring, 

 the majority of foils, at leaft all thofe incumbent on a hard or 

 clolc bottom, turn up tough and waxy; and if a hot fun prevails 

 for a few days afterwards, the furface becomes baked hard like a 

 brick, before the bottom or lubfoil is free of the fuperabundant 

 moifturc there accumulated. Under thefe circumftances, with vv'hat 

 propriety can drilUng or rowing be attempted, or with what de- 

 gree of perfedion would the feveral operations be executed? 

 That the fouthern diif ricls of England, and even many kindly 

 foils in other diftrids, might fafely be drilled, we are not at this 

 time intending to deny ; but our author makes no diif indion. He 

 has an uniform recipe for every foil, and, like the pl>yfician in 

 'the farce, bleeds the weft ward, and jalaps the eaft ward, with- 

 out conGdering whether fuch prefcriptions are applicable to the 

 patient's fituation or not. 



Our author fays, p 274, that * the fallowifls have contented 

 themlelves with fimply allerting, that their lands will not do 

 without reft.' This, to be fure, is a liirange reafon ; but, if fuch 

 has been urged in defence of fallow, we wafli our hands clean of 

 the ailertion. What is fummer fallow, but merely tilling the 

 ground at a proper feafon, and freeing it from weeds at a time 

 when the operation of ploughing and harrowing can only be 

 fuccefsfully employed? If we had no wet weather, and no win- 

 ter months, then, to be fare, conftant cropping would be practi- 

 cable, and an extra ftock of men andhorfes would only be necef- 

 fary; but in the prefent ftate of our climate, (and we know not 

 how it may be meliorated) little or nothing can be done from 

 autumn to the firft of April, except ploughing the ftubbles, and 

 putting in the wheat, and early fpring feeds. Even Vvitli every 

 degree of attention, thefe neceftary ads arc often executed on 

 clay foils, under fuch unfavourable circumftances, as to haften a 

 return of fummer fallow earlier than could be wilhed. 



It carries, no doubt, a flouriihing found, to maintain, that " the 

 earth is deftined by nature to an everlafting round of vegeta- 

 tion;" but there is not much fenfe in the pofition, when applied 

 to pradical hufbandry. Will the earth produce corn crops, un- 

 lefs the feed is fown,or can corn be fown^ unlefs the earth is cul- 

 tivated ? The natural vegetation of the c?Tth 15 alTuredly very 



different 



