96 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VII. 



to allow time for three spring ploughings, and no preparation is equal to a 

 barley fallow for a crop of clover * 



ALTERNATE ROTATIONS. 



The alternation of green and white crops— which is now sufficiently un- 

 derstood to form the leading principle in every judicious rotation in which 

 it is practicable, — is necessarily varied in the details of practice, according 

 to the numerous circumstances of time, place, and soil, by which it must 

 be governed ; but the most prominent feature of all the courses upon those 

 light soils which are usually termed " turnip land," is that commonly known 

 as the Norfolk system : which consists of four shifts, comprising — 



1. Turnips — 2, Barley — 3, Clover — 4. Wheat — 

 has been continued, with very little variety, during a long series of years, 

 upon many large farms in that county, and is now very generally adopted 

 upon similar land throughout many parts of the United Kingdom. There 

 indeed can be no doubt that light land may be maintained by it in a 

 state of perfect cleanness, and that, when managed with capital and 

 spirit, it may be rendered more profitable to the farmer than any other ; 

 but so far as the production of grain is concerned, it is clear that wheat of 

 a finer quality, and heavier crops, are obtained from a bare summer fallow. 

 This course, short and simple as it is, contains the just elements of good 

 husbandry ; but it must be understood as requiring the whole produce 

 of the cultivated grasses and green crops to be consumed upon the farm, 

 and consequently to need the assistance of a flock of sheep. Its 

 commencement is founded upon the cleansing of the ground ; and 

 there is no crop with which we are acquainted which, upon dry soils, 

 presents so many advantages as the culture of turnips ; for the same 

 ends are as effectually gained by it as by a naked fallow upon heavier 

 lands, while, independently of its own particular value, its beneficial 

 effects extend the whole period of the rotation. The crop necessarily 

 requires a complete tilth ; this — particularly if it be drilled and horse-hoed 

 — brings the earth into a state of superior mellowness for the reception of 

 the barley and seeds ; and the clover, broken up by one ploughing, leaves 

 a sound bed for the production of the wheat. 



To this indeed it has been objected, that the most valuable crop in the 

 course is thereby placed at the farthest distance from the meliorating influ- 

 ence of the turnips, the application of the manure applied to which, it is 

 thought, must be in a great measure exhausted before the wheat is sown. The 

 argument is certainly not without weight; but it should at the same time 

 be recollected, that it would be no easy matter, either by disposing the 

 crops already enumerated in a different order, or by introducing others in 

 addition, to arrange a plan of cultivation which might on the whole prove 

 more advantageous. It is obvious, that if turnips are to enter into the 

 course, they cannot be eaten on the ground in time to admit of the 

 sowing of winter wheat ; and it is chiefly when fed off the land that we 

 consider them of superior value. Other green crops might, it is true, be 

 removed sufliciently early in the autumn for the sowing of wheat ; but on 

 the land to which our remarks apply there are but few cases in which they 

 could be so profitably planted. Potatoes, for instance, cannot be generally 

 cultivated to any great extent ; beans are adapted rather to heavy than 

 light soils ; and peas, besides being very precarious, are found of little 

 avail in cleansing the ground. Independently of _^the liigh place which 

 * Boys's Surv. of Kent; 2ud edit. chap. viii. sect. 3. 



