58 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. V. 



the ground, that he is enabled to dress the land in time for tares, and thus 

 he obtains the benefit of a bastard fallow, while, during the growth of the 

 bean crop, the summer generally allows of the effective operation of the 

 horse-hoe ; and by these means he, in common seasons, gains nearly all 

 the advantages of a complete summer fallow. In the north, however, these 

 objects cannot always be accomplished ; for the crops come off so much 

 later than in the south, that corn cannot generally be reaped sufficiently 

 early to admit of the land being properly dressed and sown with tares, and 

 the bastard fallow is consequently lost. Then tlie summers are frequently 

 so cold and dripping, as to render every effort inadequate to the destruction 

 of weeds, which spring up with rapidity after every shower, and thus defy 

 the operation of the hoe. Indeed, those which propagate their species by 

 suckers from the roots, are invigorated by the process, which, by affording 

 a fresh supply of air and openness to the soil, gives freedom to the shoots 

 which are left in possession of the ground ; and no one who is acquainted with 

 the practice of tillage will calculate upon their eradication merely by the 

 effects of hoeing. 



These facts prove incontestably that climate, in conjunction with soil, 

 and not the soil alone, should be taken into consideration in every discus- 

 sion regarding the expediency of summer fallows, and that the continuance 

 of the practice cannot be justly attributed to either stubbornness or igno- 

 rance. But supposing that, in despite of drilling, horse and hand-hoeing, 

 the land becomes foul, as it will in any county if the season prove cold and 

 moist, it may then be asked, Can it aftericards be made clean tcitkoul a 

 thorough summer fallow? And to this we venture to assert, that the answer 

 of almost every farmer who has to contend with a wet and heavy soil will 

 be decidedly given in the negative*. In saying this, however, we are far 

 from assuming that fallowing should be universally adopted : that it may 

 be warded oft' during a certain number of years by the expedients of the 

 improved husbandry cannot be doubted ; but that it can be blotted out of 

 the system is, we assume, nmore than can be supported upon any tenable 

 f^round. Therefore let the natural causes which render it necessary be duly 

 considered, and, if these be found sufficient, let it then be effectually per- 

 formed, without allowing any speculative theory to interfere with the sound 

 dictates of practical experience. 



The practice, indeed, although formerly universal, has been long wearing 

 partially out, and has been very generally abandoned upon soils of a 

 nature to admit of alternate crops of corn and artificial grasses, or roots 



* " If we had no wet weather and no winter months, then constant cropping would cer- 

 tainly be practicable, and an extra stock of men and horses would be all that was required; 

 but in the British climate little or no work can be done from Autumn to the 1st of April, 

 which can tend to materially clear the ground of root-weeds. The sole object of plou^li- 

 ing in winter is to rot the stubble, and prepare a bed for spring seeds ; and with every 

 deo-ree of attention it is often, from necessity, performed under such unfavourable circum- 

 stances as to hasten a return of summer fallow sooner than could be wished. 



" In a word, upon all clay soils, and, generally speaking, upon soils of every descrip- 

 tion incumbent upon a wet bottom, the best time of cleaning them is in the summer 

 months ; and in this opinion we are decidedly supported by the respectable author of the 

 Staffordshire Survey. That gentleman, in his report to the Board of Agriculture, says, 

 ' Fallowing for wheat on cold, wet, strong lands, and on all such as are unfit for turnips, 

 is absolutely necessary ; and he who attempts to manage such land without fallowing, 

 will have reason to repent his mistake. IMixed soils, which are too wet for turnips, have 

 a particular propensity to the production of root grasses. Summer fallow, therefore, 

 becomes absolutely necessary ; and every attempt to crop without it, for any length of 

 time, on such land, has terminated to its injury, and to the loss of the occupier.'" — 

 Brown of Markle, vol i. p. 209. 



