24 Cultivation of si cable Land. Wlitat Feeding of Crops. 



quence, that muft otherwife have been exhaufted in fupporting the central 

 ftems . 



This practice has been found by experience to be the moft ufeful on fuch 

 ftrong and fertile lands as are apt to produce a larger proportion of draw than 

 can be properly fupported. In thefe cafes advantage has frequently been de 

 rived by feeding off the blade at two or more fuccedive times ; but in managing 

 the bufmefs, great care is ncceffary, to fee that the whole is completed before the 

 crop begins tofpindle, otherwife more injury than good may be produced. But 

 on the lighter and more poor defcriptions of foil, the practice muft be employed 

 with great caution, as on fuch lands the growth of the crops may be fo retarded, 

 as to become weak and fpindly. Befides, on thofe lands where they are very 

 light, and the crops thin, injury may frequently be done, by many of the plants 

 being pulled up on account of theclofenefs of the bite of the fheep. They mould, 

 therefore, never be fuffered to remain upon the crops when the weather is wet and 

 the furface of the ground much loofened, or after fudden frofts and thaws ; as in 

 fuch cafes much harm may be done by the plants being pulled up and deftroyed. 

 The treading of the animals may, however, be of great fervicc in all the light 

 forts of land, and where the crops are thin, as by that means the earth will not 

 only be preffed more clofely about the roots of the plants, but the ftems in many 

 inftances fo forced into the ground and covered up, that new moots will be fent 

 off laterally, and the crops be thus rendered more full on the land. But where 

 the foils are very fliffand adhefive, the growth of the crops may be checked and 

 retarded by the practice, and ofcourfethe moots thus caufed become weak, 

 affording only fmall ears and light grain f. The obfervation and experiments of 

 the fame writer have indeed fully convinced him that wheat ought not to be fed 

 down with fheep, unlcfs it be very rank in January, and that fuch crops mould 

 only be fed as were fown early. 



But though this practice has much relation to that employed in gardening, of 

 flopping the growth of the main ftems of fome forts of plants, as thofe of the 

 cucumber and melon kinds, by rubbing off or cutting away the central buds, 

 in order to expedite their fruiting; yet, in wheat crops, \vhere the principal 

 ftems are eaten down, except when they are early and of very luxuriant growth, 

 the cars of the new moots may not have time to perfect their feed, and of courfe 

 become ligh: and fhrivelled in the grain j and the new ftems, from their weak- 

 nefs, be more apt to fall down and be lodged. Thefe are circumftances that 



* Boglo, m Bath Pupers, vol. III. f Bath Papers, vol. I. p. 66. 



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