122° On Wild Garlick. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
A spring oat crop, sowed early, in the fallow intended 
for wheat, is, by very many, believed to be the antidote 
against garlick. Although I am opposed, in general, to 
sowing oats on light soils ; and especially if they imme- 
djately precede a wheat crop; I am not among the 
number, of those (if any there be) who will censure Mr. 
Roberts’s course of crops, as “‘ an execrable rotation.” 
I sce not that, for his object, he could have pursued a 
better. There were two crops of Indian corn, two of 
oats, and four of clover, plaistered generally. If he had 
fall-ploughed every autumn, while his field was in til- 
lage, his object of destroying garlick, would have been 
the sooner accomplished ; and other advantages would 
have been gained. Successions, year after year, of the 
same kind of grain, are not justifiable, nor profitable. 
But his object was not so much for the crop, as for its 
agency in the conquest of his enemy. Frequent stirring 
for corn, and early ploughing for oats, were his means 
of destruction of the pest he aimed to extirpate. My 
experience for 40 years, has convinced me that the ear- 
ly ploughing in the spring, and most especially if it 
succeeds a full ploughing, is the remedy; and the oats 
gain the credit. Among its disadvantages, oats has one 
benefit intermixed. It compels early ploughing. Facts 
are, I knew, pro and con, on this subject—But it is dif- 
ficult to judge of relations of facts, without knowing 
concomitant circumstances. And many of these are 
undesignedly, and without attending to their bearimg on 
the point, omitted. The desire to get a crop, to pay for 
labour and expence immediately, warps the judgment. 
