Ch. v.] SUMMER FALLOW. 61 



into account ; and it is not improbable that tlie practice has rather arisen 

 from the neglect of drainage than from any other real necessity. 



Some difference of opinion also prevails regarding the proper depth of 

 the furrow-slice to be taken under this first ploughing, and the angle which 

 the furrow-slice ought to form with the horizon. The most general prac- 

 tice is to go the full depth to which the plough is usually carried ; for it is 

 thought that if summer fallows are not ploughed deep enough when they 

 receive the first furrow, it will afterwards be found impossible, in a dry 

 season, to go to a sufficient depth. There are farmers, however, who contend 

 that, although attended with difliculty and hard labour, it yet is far from 

 impracticable, and who, therefore, plough shallow at first, and after clearing 

 the soil thus turned up, go to the utmost depth they intend with the next 

 furrow*. Wiien land is much covered with surface weeds, and that it can 

 be ploughed early in the season, this light ploughing maybe judicious ; for 

 it encourages the growth of annuals, and if the weather prove moist, many 

 of the seeds which would have been buried by a deep ploughing- may spring 

 up, and be destroyed by harrowing, or by an after ploughing. The remark 

 will also hold good upon the breaking- up of gi-ass leys, the sward of which, 

 if buried deep, will not rot, and, therefore, should be ploughed verv super- 

 ficially; but, when the winter ploughing has been late in the year, it must 

 be evident that the more root-weeds are exposed to the air, the more easily 

 will they be detached from the soil, and destroyed during the ensuing fallow 

 process ; and that the deeper the furrow, the greater will be the benefit 

 which the ground will receive from the mellowing influence of the frost. 

 In adhesive soils, tlie plough should, therefore, be set narrower and deeper 

 than in the common practice, and the furrow-slice should be well turned 

 over, or laid as nearly as possible at an angle of forty-five degrees with the 

 horizon ; for, if completely turned upside down, or laid too flat, land of that 

 sort will lie water-sogged during the whole of the winter f. 

 - The second j^ioughi/ig is given some time in April, if tlie season 

 permits, though more generally in May, soon after the spring sowing has 

 passed, and not until the ground is in a proper temper between wet and 

 dry; but if the land be much subject to annual weeds," it is highly 

 expedient to run tlie harrows across it some time previously, in order 

 to encourage their growth. When the soil is very heavy, the ridges 

 are again ploughed end-long ; and, if formerly gathered up high and 

 narrow, they are now cleaved. The third commonly takes place in the 

 month of June, and is performed at right angles, or as nearly so as the 

 form of the fields will permit ; thus cutting across the former ridges, from 

 which it has obtained the name of the cross-furrow. Sometimes, however, 

 if the land be tolerably dry, and in such condition that five turnings are 

 deemed sufficient, the cross-furrow is given at the second ploughing; but, 

 in either case, it is intended to go deep, and turn up the ground in large 

 lumps, which, though wearing an uncouth appearance, yet expose a large 

 surface to the sun and air, and are thus well adapted to further the pro- 

 gress of the fallow process. 



The rollers, drags, and harrows, are shortly afterwards set vigorously to 

 work, to crush the clods, tear up and extract the root-weeds, which should 

 be invariably gathered into heaps by women and children, and either 

 carried off the ground or burned : the former is, however, of the two, far 

 the most desirable plan. Double turns of the harrows should, indeed, be 



* General Report of Scotland, vol. i, p. 3-17. Kent's Norfolk, p. 41. 

 t See Blaikie on the Couversiou of Arable Laud into Pasture. 



