102 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VII. 



effectually maintain the ground in good order ; and, if it be poor, green 

 crops are more likely to increase than diminish an evil which can only be 

 remedied bv laying the land down for a series of years to pasture. Inferior 

 soils, indeed, though naturally improved by being converted to grass, are 

 not calculated for the production of root crops, and experience proves that 

 it is easier to raise a heavy crop of wheat than a good crop of turnips 

 upon poor land. Besides, even supposing the land to be kept in that high 

 state, it may yet be justly asked, what object of real value is thereby gained, 

 if advantage be not taken of it to raise those crops which will best pay the 

 farmer ? It is undoubtedly wrong to exhaust the soil by over-cropping ; 

 but it certainly must be considered as equally injudicious not to crop the 

 land up to what it will bear without being injured*. 



These light turnip-lands, it must however be remarked, contain such a 

 great variety of soils, that no rotation of crops can be expected to reign 

 uniformly. Nor, even were the quality of the land the same, would farmers 

 adopt a similarity of practice, and to notice the endless changes of method 

 made by individuals would fill a volume ; whereas, a work of this kind 

 must evidently be confined to an account of only the most prominent 

 features of the prevailing systems of cultivation. The nature of such 

 soils, however, generally partakes of chalk, sand, or loam, and the most 

 usual rotations in those districts are the following. 



DISTRICT ROTATIONS. 



The chalky districts generally consist of separate layers of either hazel- 

 loams, strong red clay, or thin flinty clay, of different degrees of deptli, and 

 incumbent upon a subsoil of chalk ; but when consisting, as they do in 

 many parts, mostly of pure chalk, but very little profit can attend their 

 culture, and they are commonly left for sheep-walks : thus forming what 

 in the south of England we call " downs," and in the north " wolds ; '' 

 large flocks being kept for the purpose of folding on the arable land, and 

 much of it being farmed under the common Norfolk system. The 

 variations are — 



On the chalky loams — 



1. Turnips, dunged, and fed off. 5. Wheat. 



2. Beans. 6, Tares, fed off. 



3. Barley, or oats, with seeds. 7. Oats. 



4. Clover. 8. Cole, or rye, for spring feed. 



But if the land be of a stronger quality, the course is then altered for — 



1. Fallow, dunged. 5. Turnips, fed off. 



. 2. Wheat. 6. Barley. 



3. Oats. 7. Clover. 



4. Beans. 8. Oats, or in some cases, wheat ; 

 and two crops of corn are thus taken successively : in both cases the land 

 is, however, frequently laid down with sainfoin. 



On the strong species of red clay the usual rotation is — 



1. Fallow, folded or dunged. 



2. Wheat. 



3. Peas. 



4. Tares, generally fed off, but sometimes left for seed. 



5. Oats, if the tares are left for seed ; wheat, if folded off, 



- When peas are taken, the land is skim-ploughed, trench-ploughed, and 



* See Stevenson's Survey of Surrey, chap, vii, sect. 3. 



