104 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VII 



diate profit upon an additional crop of corn. There is also an exception to 

 tiic principles of good farming, which not uncommonly prevails upon these 

 loams, by wheat being taken from them instead of barley, when the turnijjs 

 can be eaten otF by the end of November : in which case the rotation 

 usually stands thus — 



1. Turnips. 2. Wheat. 3. Clover. 4. Peas. 5. Wheat. 



Heavy clays of a cold nature, when not under the common-field 

 system, or restricted by leases to one particular mode of cultivation, arc 

 commonly worked under courses which commence with summer fallow, 

 very generally dressed with lime, and continued with crops of wheat, alter- 

 nately with beans and clover ; the principle being — that a fallow, when once 

 given effectually, will enable the farmer to omit it in the second return of 

 the course : thus improving upon the old system of fallow every third 

 year. On the stiff wet clays of the wealds of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, 

 and, indeed, not unfrequently in many other parts of the kingdom, a crop 

 of oats still succeeds that of wheat ; the land is then laid down with 

 clover and rye-grass, or trefoil, for two or three years, when it is again 

 broken up ; but ic in that time frequently becomes covered with weeds, or 

 grasses, which are indigenous to the soil. More is, in fact, lost by keeping 

 such soils two or three years in grass, than can possibly be made or saved 

 by the stock which they will maintain ; for the sown grasses begin to leave 

 the land even in the second year ; they should therefore be either broken 

 up earlier, or, if it be thought proper to keep them more than one year in 

 pasture, they should be suffered to lie till the grasses which are natural to 

 them take place of those which are sown *. 



The years for growing these several crops are, however, frequently 

 reversed ; and barley is never sown on land of this adhesive descrip- 

 tion. It seems, indeed, to be a general princijile among the farmers of 

 the south of England, that a clover ley is in all cases the best prepara- 

 tion for a crop of wheat ; while, in the north, and throughout Scotland, 

 clover is more commonly sown with wheat and followed by oats : both 

 from the latter being almost invariably found to produce a large return 

 after clover, and from the wheat being better placed in the immediate suc- 

 cession of the fallow. 



On thin clays, oats are, indeed, throughout the north, a more prevailing 

 crop than wheat ; and on the hilly districts of that moist climate, they are 

 more profitable to the tenant, as well as less exhausting to the soil. The 

 general course in extensive districts of that country is, therefore — 



1. Turnips, well dunged. 2, Oats. 3. Clover. 4. Oats. 

 which has succeeded completely; and, in such situations, it may be doubtfid 

 whether oats would not be generally found the best crop of the two after 

 the ley ; for, if the clover crop be good, the succeeding oat crop seldom fails. 

 In most clays of the ordinary description, however, the last crop of oats 

 should be sown with pasture-grasses, and left for a few years, or until they 

 begin to engender moss. It is, indeed, frequently necessary to sow down 

 tiiis kind of land with pasture grasses: this should, however, be done 

 when it is free from weeds, and in good condition; and if the pasture can 

 be manured the second, or at the farthest the third year, it will renovate 

 the grass, and leave it in capital order for being again broken up ; whereas, 



* Sussex Report, p. 78 ; Surrey do., p. 195. During the high prices of corn many 



farmers, indeed, adopted a course, upon light hinds, consist ing of turnips, hailey, wlieat 

 anil then barley or oats, with grass-seeds ; and this ruinous practice has not yet been 

 entirely discontinued. Surv. of Cornwall, p. 57. 



