466 



ARABLE LAND. 



ARABLE LAND. 



470 



produce several crops afterwards with a much smaller quantity of 

 labour. By such fallowing and proper manuring, the soil is fully 

 restored to its highest degree of fertility. In light soils, which are 

 generally poorer, turnips or other green crops are sown, on which sheep 

 are penned, which by their manure still more enrich the soil ; and it 

 is only when this manure is ploughed in, that the land may be con- 

 sidered as possessing the full degree of fertility. 



There are some soils which are so mixed with pebbles and stones, 

 that instruments for their cultivation must be adapted to their texture. 

 Some of these soils, abounding with chalk, are tolerably fertile, and the 

 stones, when they are not so large as to impede the operations, are 

 rather beneficial than otherwise. Theophraetus mentions a field which 

 had been deprived of its fertility by the removal of the stones, and 

 others have learned the same from experience. Pebbles prevent too 

 great evaporation, shelter the young plants in exposed situations, and 

 reflect the light and heat of the sun. The only inconvenience found 

 from them in good soils is that they occupy the room of better earth, 

 and wear out the instruments used, which in consequence are made 

 stronger and blunter. When there is a crop to be mown with the 

 scythe, the stones must be removed from the surface, but not otherwise, 

 at least in light soils. 



When the land has been duly prepared, the seed is sown. This is done 

 sometimes before the last ploughing, but then the manure should have 

 been ploughed in before ; for, except in planting potatoes, which are not 

 seed, but budded portions of an underground stem, the manure should 

 always be deeper, and not in contact with the seed ; indeed, the proper 

 plan is to mix the manure thoroughly with the soil. When the seed is 

 ploughed in, the furrow-slice should not be above two or three inches 

 deep, and eight or nine wide ; and it is only in particular soils that this 

 mode is to be recommended. The most common method is, to sow 

 the seed on the land after the last ploughing, and draw the harrows 

 over to cover it. When the land has been well ploughed , and especially 

 if the press-drill hits followed the plough, the seed will mostly fall in 

 the small furrows made by two adjoining ridges, and rise in regular 

 rows. But by far the most perfect way is, to sow it at a regular depth, 

 by means of a machine, and in rows at regular distances [DRILL], or to 

 dibble it, which is an operation performed only in a few parts of England, 

 especially in Suffolk, Essex, and Norfolk. A man makes small holes at 

 the distance of four or six inches, and in rows nine to twelve inches 

 asunder, with two rods about thirty inches long, one in each hand, 

 having an oval ring for a handle at one end, and at the other an inverted 

 cone three inches in the axis and an inch and a half diameter at the 

 base, which he pushes and turns with his hands in the ground to prevent 

 the earth adhering, and makes the holes rapidly going backwards along 

 the furrows. Two or more children follow and drop three or four 

 grains in each hole. A harrow is drawn over the ground, and fills the 

 holes with loose earth. When the corn comes up it looks like a regular 

 plantation. 



The proper season for sowing each kind of grain, the choice of seed, 

 and other particulars will be given under the names of the different 

 weds usually sown. As a general rule it may be observed, that the 

 smaller the seed, the less it must be covered, and clover or gross seed 

 are either very lightly harrowed in, or only pressed in with the roller. 



Of the tncmriun of crops or rotation*. It has been found by expe- 

 rience, that besides the general exhaustion produced by vegetation, 

 especially by those plants which are allowed to ripen their seeds, each 

 kind of crop has a specific effect on the soil, so that no care or manure 

 can, as a general rule, make the same ground produce equal crops of 

 the same kind of grain, for any length of time without the intervention 

 of other crops. Whether this be owing to any peculiar nourishment 

 uecesaary to each particular kind of plants, or because plants not indige- 

 nous degenerate in a foreign soil ; the fact is certain with respect to 

 most crops usually raised ; the turnip and clover crops may be cited as 

 instances. This points out the advantage of varying the crops, accord- 

 ing as they are found to succeed best after each other. In general, all 

 kinds of grain succeed beat after a crop which has been cut before the 

 wed has ripened, or the stem is dried up. Those plants which have a 

 naked stem with few leaves thrive best after leguminous plants, which 

 have more succulent stems and more leaves, and which bear their seeds 

 in pods, as peas, beans, tares, or vetches ; or after esculent roots, which 

 strike deep into the ground, as carrots, parsnips, beet-roots, and 

 turnips. From this circumstance, confirmed by universal experience, 

 the different systems of rotation have had their origin, taking the 

 nature of the soil into consideration. 



The simplest rotation, and one which can only be adapted to the 

 richest strong alluvial soils, is that of wheat and beans, alternately, and 

 without any intermission. It is in use in some parts of Kent and 

 Essex, and in a few places in Germany. The land is well prepared 

 and manured for the beans, which are set or drilled in rows, so as to 

 admit of horse-hoeing between, as in Tull's method, till the beans get 

 to a considerable height ; besides this, careful hand-hoeing and weeding 

 are practised, by which the land is cleaned and stirred as in a regular 

 fallow. The beans being cut, the ground is ploughed once, and the 

 wheat sown. It is the practice in some places to scarify the land 

 immediately after harvest, to cut up the stubble. It is done in Kent 

 with a plough without a mould-board, and with a very broad share, 

 hence called broad-thariny, but most usually by the scarifier mentioned 

 before : the stubble and weeds, if any, are raked up and burned : this 



is an excellent practice. Another equally simple rotation, on very 

 poor light land, is that of turnips and barley alternately, which is 

 mentioned by Arthur Young as being in use in the county of Durham, 

 with the simple variation of clover occasionally. The turnips are 

 always fed off by sheep folded on them. Where winter food for the 

 sheep is scarce, this rotation may answer, but otherwise cannot be very 

 profitable. 



The oldest rotation known, and which was almost universal in 

 Europe, from the time of the Romans, wherever any regular system 

 of agriculture prevailed, is the triennial rotation of fallow, winter corn, 

 and summer or lent corn ; that is, wheat or rye sown in autumn, and 

 barley or oats sown in spring. This was called the three-field system ; 

 and on every farm, the arable land was divided into three parts, one of 

 which was in fallow, one in winter corn, and one in summer corn. 

 When properties were much intermixed and subdivided, the whole of 

 a considerable tract was divided into three fields, and it was almost 

 impossible for any individual to deviate from the established course ; 

 especially as a right frequently existed of pasturing all the sheep of 

 the parish or district on the fallow field in summer, and on all the 

 others after harvest. In England, this impediment was removed by 

 the legislature passing Acts of enclosure ; but it is still felt in many 

 parts of the Continent. This rotation had its advantages, or it could 

 never have been so long in use. Where a sufficient quantity of manure 

 could be collected by means of cattle fed on pastures and commons in 

 summer, and in the strawyard in winter, to give a regular dressing to 

 the fallows every third year, good crops were produced, and the fertility 

 kept up. The labour was very equally divided throughout the year ; 

 and such was the regularity of every operation, that a large quantity 

 of land might be cultivated by a proprietor at a considerable distance, 

 with only occasional inspection, without an overseer or bailiff, provided 

 he had honest servants. But, when pastures came to be broken up, 

 and converted into arable land, and cattle consequently diminished, 

 the laud could not be manured on every fallow ; the crops suffered ; 

 less straw being grown, the quantity of manure was diminished, and 

 the land became gradually less and less productive, till, from necessity, 

 a portion was left uncultivated, and returned to natural and inferior 

 pasture ; this gave the idea of laying the land down regularly to grass 

 by sowing seeds, and gradually introduced the alternate and convertible 

 system of which we will take notice hereafter. 



The apparent loss of a third part of the land by the fallows intro- 

 duced various crops, which were supposed not to exhaust the soil, but 

 rather to enrich it : of this kind, one of the first was clover, introduced 

 by the Flemish ; and afterwards turnips, which have been found of 

 such importance in light soils and moist climates. By substituting 

 turnips for an entire fallow, or, more properly, sowing them early on 

 the regular fallow, and interposing the clover between the summer 

 and winter corn, the highly improved Norfolk rotation has been ob- 

 tained, namely, 1. Turnips, well manured; 2. Barley; 3. Clover; 

 4. Wheat. By this a sufficiency of food for sheep and cattle is ob- 

 tained, without natural pastures, and the land, manured every fourth 

 year at least, is kept in a regular state of progressive improvement. 

 The advantages of this rotation have made it a condition in many leases 

 of light land, under heavy penalties in case of deviation. The first and 

 principal inconvenience found in it was the failure of the clover in 

 most soils, if sown every fourth year ; this obliged the fanner to have 

 recourse to other less profitable crops, such as ray-grass, peas, or tares, 

 which, in light lands, are not equal to broad cjover. as a preparation for 

 wheat. Where the soil is firm and rich, and at the same time mellow, 

 a rotation may be introduced, compounded of the first and last men- 

 tioned ; that is, beans, wheat, turnips, barley, clover, wheat, making a 

 rotation of six years. This can only be introduced with advantage 

 where there are considerable pastures, and much cattle is kept to 

 supply manure for the land titve in the rotation, namely, for the 

 turnips and for the beans, and where the drill husbandry admits of 

 hoeing and weeding thoroughly ; but with these advantages, no course 

 can be more profitable, as is found in those parts of Kent and Essex 

 where marsh pastures are attached to the farms. If the soil is too 

 heavy and wet for turnips, and they cannot well be drawn off nor fed 

 on the land without injuring it, a clean fallow is substituted for the 

 turnips, the other crops remaining the same ; or cabbages, or mangold 

 wurzel, are planted for the cattle, but seldom to a great extent, A 

 long fallow from after harvest until the second spring, including two 

 winters, prepares the land admirably for barley, so that it can be sown 

 without any manure, which is reserved as a top-dressing for the young 

 clover after the barley. This is a very excellent method. The clover 

 or ray-grass will be more abundant, and the wheat after it will not be 

 in danger of running to straw, or lodging, that is, falling down for want 

 of a sufficient hold of the ground by the roots. 



We may add here the following enumeration of existing rotations. 

 The four years' course of crops which originated in Norfolk, is, as has 

 been said, 1 . Wheat ; 2. Turnips ; 3. Barley ; 4. Clover. 



When the too frequent repetition of clover or turnips induces 

 disease, one half of the barley stubble is broken up for beans, and that 

 half is put to mangold wurzel after the succeeding crop of wheat, so 

 that this becomes an eight years' rotation, namely, 1. Wheat ; 2. Tur- 

 nips ; 3. Barley ; 4. Beans ; 5. Wheat ; 6. Mangold Wurzel ; 7. Barley ; 

 8. Clover. 



Sometimes when turnips are all fed off on the land where they grow, 



