Ch. v.] SUMMER FALLOW. G3 



tially useful after the second or third plougliings ; for when these have been 

 accomphshed, it not only breaks the clods more effectually tlian the plough, 

 but it also possesses the decided advantage of executing the work with a 

 degree of promptitude which enables the farmer to seize upon any favour- 

 able moment for its completion. 



If these operations liave been all efficiently performed, the land may 

 then be supposed to be in a fit state for the reception of the manure — 

 whether dung or compost ; but if it be not yet perfectly clean, they must 

 be repeated until it becomes so ; and indeed another stirring of the 

 land, either with the grubbers or the plough, will amply repay the expense, 

 by the improvement which it will occasion in the working of the soil, and 

 tlie production of the future course of crops. In the maritime district of 

 the Hundreds of Essex, for instance, which are much infested with a 

 species of weed called black-grass, the process is seldom thought to have 

 been well completed until after eight ploughings, and some farmers are 

 known to give as many as nine or ten, and even to the extent of twelve. 

 In that county it is, however, the common practice to apply the fallow to 

 the barley crop*. 



The Jiftfi j)lojighing, or that which precedes the seed-furrow, is therefore, 

 the time for laying on the manure. As it is important to the success of 

 the future crop to apply it during the continuance of fine weather, so that 

 the soil may receive the full benefit of the reciprocal action of the earth 

 and manure while forced by the heat and occasional showers which may be 

 expected to fall at that season, the operation should not be too long 

 delayed ; and as it is peculiarly necessary to get it upon the land while the 

 fallow is in a dry state, no time should be lost in spreading it. It is laid 

 on under a shallow furrow, and in farms properly managed, there is gene- 

 rally strength of teams sufficient to carry out the dung and complete the 

 ploughing without delay; which is a great advantage, for when allowed to 

 lie long uncovered, it may be supposed to lose some portion of its 

 fertilizing properties!. Tlie mode of procedure is as follows. 



The manure should be carried to the ground in single horse carts, which 

 poach the land less than those which carry a heavy load, and is carted 

 along the ridges, where it is thrown out by a man standing in the cart into 

 heaps of equal size, and set at equal distances, more or less apart, according 



* Essex Report, vol. i., p. 193. The following is aa account of the manner of per- 

 forming it, furnished by Lord Western. 



" To make a good fallow, we give the first ploughing in November, February, or quite 

 to the end of March, after barley sowing ; if in November, the stitches are laid a little 

 round, to be water shot, and afterwards well water-furrowed. The land is generally 

 ploughed first into stitches of eight or twelve nine-inch furrows, then crossed and 

 ploughed in different ways very often during the summer, turning up every time a dif- 

 ferent surface to the sun and air. Before harvest, it is got up on four-furrow ridges; 

 after harvest it is immediately ploughed again, and if the weather admits, twice, leaving 

 it upon the ridge for the winter : the later the last ploughing the better, to prevent the 

 black-grass from getting up ; after which it is never water-lurrowed. By these means 

 we get upon it much earlier in the spring than we could otherwise do, and when we 

 plough for barley, these stiflj tenacious lands break down into the finest tilth it is possible 

 to conceive. 



" Upon the whole, we give not less than six, seven, or eight ploughings. In ploughing 

 stitches for wheat, or anything else, much attention is paid to turn the furrows well, draw 

 them straight, size them alike, and lap them with such regularity on to each other, that 

 the harrows cannot fail to lay hold of them'^all. The shutting up furrow, in particular, 

 is drawn straight, handsomely turned, clean swept out, and at the same time the space 

 between stitch and stitch not left too wide." 



f On this subject see, however, the remarks in vol. i., chap, x., pp. 238 and 240 j 

 chap, xxvi., p. 431; and the Table, p. 437, 



