244 On the A(jriculture of the Netherlands, 



of 18 or 20 inches^ this double crop could never succeed. The 

 carrots come up very slowly, so that the flax keeps the upper 

 hand. The most minute and industrious hand-weeding leaves the 

 flax and carrots sole possessors of the soil. The carrots make no 

 great progress till the flax is pulled ; but as soon as this is done, 

 and a good sprinkling of rich liquid has moistened the surface, 

 and another weeding and thinning of the carrots, if it is required, 

 has given them room to swell, they advance most rapidly, and in 

 a couple of months the green tops of the carrots cover the ground, 

 and show that they have good substantial roots. The white 

 carrot which grows partly out of the ground, where it assumes a 

 green colour, is generally preferred, when the soil is in good 

 heart. This carrot has been successfully introduced in this 

 country, from a small parcel of the seed sent to the author of this 

 paper several years ago by the President of the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society at Brussels. It was first cultivated in the garden of 

 the School of Industry established at Winkfield, in Berkshire, 

 and the seed raised pure and unmixed. It is extensively cul- 

 tivated in France, but the Belgian variety maintains its superiority. 

 When sown amongst flax or barley the carrots never acquire half 

 the size which they do when they occupy the ground alone ; but 

 as it is a subsidiary crop to the flax, the whole of it is clear profit, 

 deducting only the expense of weeding and hoeing out. 



The table does not exactly point out how much land is occupied 

 by each crop, because this differs according to circumstances. 

 There are three systems of rotation, all beginning with flax and 

 ending with flax. The first and second have flax in the eighth 

 and ninth year; in the last the flax only recurs in the tenth. 

 This is to show how the rotation may vary when there is some 

 deficiency in manure, or the land has not been kept in so clean a 

 state as may be desirable, and always should be, when flax is sown. 

 When the land is not quite clean the flax is sown alone, in order 

 to allow of more frequent weeding ; but when very clean and in 

 high condition clover or carrots may be sown in the flax after it 

 has been once well weeded. 



Spurrey is a crop cut green for the cows, and consequently not 

 so exhausting as rye or oats ; it is sown when manure is not 

 abundant ; for in the light sands every grain crop has a portion of 

 manure, solid and liquid. When manure is abundant potatoes 

 are raised in considerable quantities ; when it is less so, a portion 

 of the land bears buckwheat, which requires no manure. When- 

 ever rye is sown it is presumed that the land is in good heart ; and 

 to have good flax it must not only have abundant remains of 

 former manurings, but it must also be very free from weeds and 

 stirred to a great depth. On the more fertile sands or sandy loams 

 the following arrangement of crops is not uncommon. The farm 



