60 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. V. 



season, the nature of the soil, the tilth and cleanliness of the land, and the 

 kind of weeds to be destroyed. "If the spnng season be found insuffi- 

 cient to effect it, take the summer, and even the autumn, the winter, and 

 tke ensuing spring, rather than crop an under-worked fallow, which is but 

 little superior to a single ploughing. One stirring towards the close is 

 frequently more valuable than two or three at the outset ; and, to begin a 

 faUoio icilhout continuing it vniil its intention be fully accomj)lished, is 

 throwing away labour iinprojilably''^." The most usual method is, how- 

 ever, commonly as follows. 



The first icinter-furrow or falloic-ploughing is usually given as soon as 

 the hurry of harvest and wheat-seed time is over ; for, if deferred 

 too long, and the weather become wet, the land may be rendered altogether 

 unfit for the operation, or at least so heavy as to be attended with consider- 

 able additional labour, as well as being less beneficial to the soil; though 

 a moderate fall of rain is desirable before the commencement of the pro- 

 cess, in order to bring the ground into that flexible condition which is 

 necessary to the easy performance of the work. It is, indeed, only on dry, 

 sandy, or light soils, that ploughing can be carried on with any advantage 

 in bad weather, and a remarkable difference may be observed in favour of 

 the crops upon fields which have been ploughed when tolerably free from 

 wet, or in a state between moist and dry. The process must, however, 

 depend upon the season ; but, provided that be favourable, and the land be 

 properly laid up so as to receive the full benefit of the winter's frost, the 

 exact period at which it is performed is not very material, though it should, 

 if possible, be always completed before Christmas, If the land can be 

 easily laid drv, it is not uncommonly worked in crown and furrow, and is 

 usually ploughed nearly with a square furrow-slice, by which means 

 it is left rough, and as much as possible exposed to the atmosphere. It is, 

 therefore, neither rolled nor harrowed ; and the ridges should be formed of 

 a size suitable to the nature of the land, but in all cases carefully gathered 

 up and interfurrowed, so that they may be laid high and dryf : the field 

 should also be cross-gripped, to prevent the stagnation of water, and in 

 that state it is generally allowed to lie until the following spring. 



Some fai'mers, however, let their land lie under stubble during the whole 

 of the winter, in the opinion that the soil, if of a cold nature, becomes 

 chilled and perished by the wet ; and that, if left unploughed until the 

 spring, it is kept much drier than if the surface had been moved, as it 

 throws off the rain more completely when firm and unbroken. After the more 

 indispensable operations of wheat-seed time are finished, it also very com- 

 monly happens that the state of the weather will not permit their clay-lands 

 to be ploughed up dry ; but that, by leaving them unploughed during the 

 winter, and giving them the first furrow in the spring, they allege, that the 

 ground turns up in large clods, by the exposure of which to the sun during 

 summer, the root-weeds are killed in the easiest and most effectual 

 manner; whereas, if the land had been ploughed before winter, it would 

 at the second ploughing turn up like mortar, and never thoroughly recover 

 its proper state |. But to this it may be answered, that although 

 the land may lie drier under stubble than that which has been ploughed 

 during the winter, yet this advantage may be considered comparatively 

 trifling, when the beneficial effects of the frost upon clay land are taken 



'_^ * Marshall's Rur. Econ. of Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 339. 



" -j- " On strong good lands, apt to be wet in winter, no ridges are so proper as what are 

 termed ten-furrowed or five-bout ridges." — Norfofk Husbandry, p. 72. 

 J Bedford^ Rep., p. 330. Surrey do., p. 172. 



