Ch. VII.] ON THE ROTATION OF CROPS. 95 



tlie land than when alternate crops are continually grown ; for the re- 

 petition of the fallow affords ample time for the preparation of the 

 ensuing crop of wheat, or the clover leaves the land to rest. 



Thirdly, the labour upon the land is equally divided throughout the 

 seasons ; and notwithstanding the loss of a year's rent, occasioned by 

 the fallow, the following crop of wheat is usually so superior as in a 

 great degree to make up for it. 

 These are considerations, both in point of personal ease and pecuniary 

 means, which call upon the farmer to look carefully to the expediency of 

 any change, however it may seem warranted by appearances ; for it will as- 

 suredly dip deep into his pocket, and if that be not so well filled as to meet 

 the full measure of expense, he had better not put his hand into it. His 

 calculations must be left to lumself ; for he alone can judge of the circum- 

 stances attending his situation, and, if he be a man of busmess, he can be 

 at no loss to make them with accuracy. It must, however, be admitted, 

 that to conduct it with anything like energy, there should be a large pro- 

 portion of meadow ; the whole of the hay and straw should be consumed in 

 the yards and stables ; and some beasts should also be stall-fed, with the 

 assistance of oil-cake, to afi'ord a sufficient supply of manure : for there is 

 this danger attendant upon such a plan, that if not well supported from the 

 commencement, it must necessarily decline, as the production of manure 

 depends in its greatest measure upon the straw, and if the corn crops fail 

 during one year, they will also suffer proportionably during the next. 



Besides being customary on clay-lands, the triennial system is exten- 

 sively fallowed and found very productive in East Kent, on some naturally 

 poor soils, as well as on deep sandy loam in the Isle of Thanet, where it is 

 known as the Kentish round tilth, which consists of — 



Barley — Beans — Wheat, 

 the process of managing which is as follows — 



The wheat g-ra<<e?i, as the stubble is there called, is raked off, or spuddled, 

 and the land ploughed five or six inches deep as soon as possible after har- 

 vest ; is cross-ploughed when the land is tolerably dry in the spring, and 

 again ploughed two or three times, according to the cleanness of the 

 ground. The barley is either drilled in, at the rate of two and a half or 

 three bushels, or sown broad-cast, four bushels per acre, some time in April ; 

 and between the times of ploughing, collections of mould, farm-yard dung, 

 and sea-weed, which is there met in great abundance, are found in conve- 

 nient situations in the fields ; are turned over in tlie autumn, and in the 

 frosty weather of winter are laid upon the barley-stubble preparatory to the 

 planting of the beans. The beans are drilled eighteen or twenty inches 

 apart, at the rate of three and a half or four bushels per acre ; the furrows 

 are then harrowed and rolled down smooth ; the land is repeatedly horse 

 and hand-hoed, kept completely clean, and at the last hoeing the beans are 

 earthed up. As soon as the beans are harvested the land is scuffled with 

 the broad-share, and made perfectly clean by harrowing and burning 

 the weeds, after which the wheat is either drilled at the rate of three 

 bushels, or sown broad-cast from that to three and a half, and, in some 

 cases, four bushels per acre. 



Under this system clover is sometimes substituted for beans, and the ma- 

 nure is then laid upon the wheat-stubble preparatory to the crop of barley ; 

 but it is a manifest improvement to sow the barley upon a fallow, well 

 dunged, during the previous autumn, by which means, as the land will then 

 be thoroughly clean, the grain can be sown earlier than when it is necessary 



