On the Agriculture of the Netherlands. 



247 



No. III. 

 Table of Rotations for a good Sti-ong Loam. 



This table of rotations for good rich loams includes a great 

 variety of crops, and introduces beans and rape, which are not 

 well suited to light soils. Rye, being used mixed with wheat for 

 the labourers' bread, forms a part of every rotation ; and it may 

 be remarked that this crop, which in England is almost invariably 

 consumed in a green state by cattle and sheep in the spring, or 

 the early part of summer, is seldom sown for this purpose in 

 the Netherlands ; but in its stead oats and winter barley are sown 

 to be consumed in a green state. Rye, however, when sown very 

 early in summer so as to cover the ground well before winter, may 

 be fed down by sheep about November, and produces a greater 

 quantity of early green food in spring than any other kind of 

 grain. Rape and beans are both good crops to precede wheat; 

 but they must be well manured. The cultivation of beans is not 

 so well managed in the Netherlands as in the rich soils in 

 England. 



Drilling and dibbling are very seldom resorted to for this crop. 

 They are sometimes set in rows by the hoe, and then admit of 

 hoeing in the intervals, by which the crop is much increased, and 

 the land kept clean; but, in general, they are sown broadcast. 



