.518 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



3. Clover. \ 



4. Wheat, j Wheat occurs in this rotation four times in 



5. Flax. / eleven years. Clover, which occurs twice, is 



6. Wheat. [ to be considered as the only enriching crop. 



7. Beans. \ Manure is applied, however, the first, third, 



8. Wheat, i fourth, seventh, and ninth years. The cul- 



9. Potatoes. \ tivation is most careful, and no weeds are 



10. Wheat. 1 spared. 



11. Oats. / 



I have given these different rotations from Yari Aelbroeck s 

 account of Fcmish husbandry. 



It may not be easy to point out in every instance the prin 

 ciples on which these rotations are founded. With the Flemish 

 farmers they are the result of long experience and observation. 

 Perhaps they might often be changed to advantage. I have 

 known, for example, in some parts of the United States, flax 

 cultivated to great advantage every fourth year; and in some 

 parts of England, wheat grown every second year. But in each 

 case the land was highly manured, and in the former case the land 

 was comparatively a new and unexhausted soil. My object in 

 going into this subject was not to prescribe a particular course, 

 but to illustrate a great principle of Flemish husbandry, which 

 will be found equally applicable to every situation. The neces 

 sity of a rotation of crops seems fully established. The kind 

 of rotation to be followed must be determined by the peculiar 

 circumstances of each locality, remembering only that two crops 

 of a similar character must not immediately succeed each other ; 

 that the occasional intervention of a cleansing crop that is, a 

 crop which requires thorough weeding is indispensable ; and 

 that those crops which are to be consumed on the farm serve a 

 double purpose: in addition to the animals which they sustain, 

 they supply the manure which is demanded. The necessity of 

 naked fallows that is, of leaving the land wholly unoccupied 

 with any crop, that it might recruit itself, and the weeds be 

 exterminated by repeated ploughings is no longer acknowl 

 edged ; and cleansing crops, which are manured, may be substi 

 tuted, greatly to the farmer s advantage. 



6. MANURING. The next great feature in the Flemish hus 

 bandry lies in their system of manuring. In the first place, they 

 manure their land abundantly. In one of the rotations to which 



