Ch. VII.] ON THE ROTATION OF CROPS, 99 



No. 2 should be naked fallow, succeeding the foulest of the previous corn 

 crops, and dunged or limed, as means may be found for manuring it: on 

 No. 3, the common four-course shift may be entered at once ; and at No. 4, it 

 may also be continued ; except that, as the turnips are there omitted, the 

 following crop of barley must be succeeded by a cleansing crop, which, if 

 the land will admit it, should be beans: if not, peas at wide intervals, 

 and both horse-hoed. The divisions will then stand thus : — 



1. 2. 3. 4. 



First Year. — Oats, or Cole. Fallow. Turnips. Barley, or Oats. 

 Second Year. — Turnips. Wheat. Barley. Beans, or Peas. 



Third Year. — Barley. Turnips. Clover. Wheat. 



And, in this order, the whole of the land may be brought under the four- 

 course system within the space of three years. If the entry should be at 

 Lady-day or Whitsuntide, or if it should be thought more advisable to 

 commence with a green crop than with oats, then the pasture land, No. 1, 

 may be sown with cole to be fed off; and a spring crop of corn maybe 

 substituted for the wheat in No. 2. As there probably will not be suffi- 

 cient dung upon the farm, even with the assistance of the fold, to manure 

 both the fallow and the turnips, we should, in that case, strongly advise 

 the farmer not to hesitate in using a liberal quantity of bone-dust for the 

 latter : at all events, no pains should be spared to bring both that crop, 

 and the condition of the land upon which it is grown, to the highest state 

 of perfection. 



In the breaking up of the land in No, 1, although turnips are set down 

 to follow oats, yet, if the land be not burned, we should recommend a 

 clean fallow in preference. Every one who is acquainted with old grass- 

 land, must be aware of the difficulty which attends the working of it in the 

 second year ; and if the ground be at all heavy, it cannot be brought into 

 a proper state of cultivation until that radical measure, of paring and 

 burning, be resorted to. The wire-worm and the grub also abound in 

 grass-fields, and there is no other way of extirjjatnig those destructive 

 insects. The course can then be carried on until it may be deemed ad- 

 visable to rest it from the operation of the plough, when it should be 

 carefully laid down with those grass-seeds which are known to be most 

 appropriate to the soil, and an equal portion of the remaining pasture may 

 be broken up. 



Or again — supposing the farm to consist of 300 acres, of which 30 are 

 occupied by the homestead, orchard, and paddocks; one- third of the re- 

 mainder to be retained in pasture ; and the rest to be brought into a regular 

 course of cultivation : the following may be found a judicious mode of divid- 

 ing the crops, so as to prevent their too frequent repetition. Thus — 



■ \15 do. turnips, well dunged. 

 P (15 do. wheat after the fallow. 



■ (15 do. barley after the turnips. 



„ (15 do. clover, to stand only one year, for mowing, after wheat. 



■ 1 15 do. perennial grass-seeds, to be laid down for pasture, after barley. 

 . (15 do. oats, after the cJover. 



■ (15 do. oats,after an equal quantity of the old pasture-land to be broken up. 



5. 30 do. drilled beans and pease, or any root-crops, well manured and 



horse-hoed, after the oats. 



6. 30 do. wheat to follow. 



By which means the whole of the rough pasture will be brought under the 



H 2 



I J 15 acres of bare fallow, dressed with lime or compost 



