42 On the Great or Jersey Trench- Ploitgh. 



and the use of the soil one season. 2ndly, To increase the 

 weight of all the subsequent crops. 



'' The practice in many parts of England is/' according to 

 Loudon, " in usefulness and effect very different from what it 

 ought to be. In most places the first furrow is not given until 

 the spring, or even till the month of May or June ; or if it is 

 given earlier, the second is not given until after midsummer^ and 

 on the third the wheat is sown. Land may rest under this 

 system of management ; but to clean it from w eeds, to pulverise 

 it^ or to give it the benefit of aeration and heat, is impossible." '^■ 



The practice of the best farmers of the northern counties is 

 very different. Loudon then describes what a proper fallow is : — 

 " invariably commencing after harvest by one ploughing, as deep 

 as the soil will admit, even though a little of the till or subsoil is 

 brought up : this is the winter furrow." Lie afterwards describes 

 four ploughings and harrowings, and the mode of collecting the 

 couch and other weeds, with a view to destroy them. 



In Professor Low's very excellent recent work, ' The Elements 

 of Practical Agriculture,' at the article 'Fallowing,' "Five and 

 in some cases six ploughings, with frequent harrowings and 

 rollings, are to be given between the winter furrow and the month 

 of August, when the dung is carried on the land and ploughed in." 

 Here is a sixth or seventh ploughing, and lastly the seed furrow ; 

 in some cases eight ploughings, unquestionably an enormous 

 expense, when added to the loss of the rent of the land one whole 

 season. 



The seeds, usually of wheat, are then sown, but it is added in 

 the following page : — " This is precisely the management pur- 

 sued in the case of turnips and similar fallow crops, so that when 

 the learner comprehends the operations of the summer fallow 

 thus far, he is acquainted with the manner of preparing the land 

 for an extensive and important class of plants." 



If by any process of husbandry the same result could be 

 obtained from a culture for fallow or root crops of five or six 

 months and only two ploughings, which is now obtained from 

 this long operation of four to eight ploughings, spread over a 

 period of ten months, it surely would be desirable and profitable. 



No such thing as a fallow is known in Jersey, where from 

 112/. to 160/. is a common price for an acre. A farmer would 

 be ruined if his land lay idle a whole season : the trench-plough 

 is his sheet anchor. 



An able w^^iter in the ' Georgical Essays/ describing it in 

 1781, or thereabouts, observes, "It was first invented and prac- 

 tised by an intelligent farmer, about fifteen or twenty years ago. 

 This plough, not yet sufficiently known^ is of the greatest utility 

 either for grubbing up the ground or ploughing deeply inwards. 



