Ch.VIL] ON THE ROTATION OF CROPS. 105 



if allowed to become exhausted, it will make no return of any value, and 

 will rather impoverish the soil than improve it*. 



On strong land., of a dry and not too tenacious quality, such as that 

 in the higher part of the Carse of Govvrie — which is, perhaps, as regu- 

 larly managed as any district of similar extent in Great Britain t — tho 

 most general routine is — 



1. Fallow. 4. Barley. 



2. Wheat. 5. Clover. 



3. Beans. 6. Oats, or sometimes wheat. " 



In less favoured parts of Scotland, beans however will not ripen in some 

 seasons: being, therefore, a precarious crop, they are seldom planted, and 

 potato-oats are generally sown in preference. 



A favourite rotation on strong land in some of the hundreds of Essex is 



1. Summer fallow, limed. 4. Wheat. 



2. Barley. 5. Beans, dunged. 



3. Clover ; first fed, and after- 6. Wheat. 



wards kept for seed. 7. Oats. 



For it is an universal rule in that county, never to put in wheat on a fallow. 

 Although two successive crops of white corn are justly objected to upon 

 the best principles of cultivation, yet upon land of this nature both wheat 

 and oats are frequently taken, either before or after each other, without 

 any material detriment to the soil. 



On the fertile loams of the Rochford Hundred, turnips, oats,' and clover, 

 followed by wheat, oats, beans, and then wheat again, are successively 

 taken, and produce abundant crops. We visited one of these farms a few 

 years ago, and found the land, which had been cropped in nearly the same 

 manner for a great length of time, not only in a state of admirable clean- 

 ness, but were assured that the last crop of wheat was equal to the first. 

 Oats are, however, in this district found so much better than barley, that 

 they not only produce more profitably, but wheat, following clover sown 

 with oats, is in general found to yield near eight bushels an acre more 

 than that which succeeds barley. Rape-seed, coriander, mustards (both 

 white and brown), and carraway, are likewise occasionally grown to a 

 considerable extent |, The cultivation of which will be duly noticed in 

 their proper order. 



* See the Survey of Mid-Lothian, p. 88 ; and the Reports of Select Farms, pub- 

 lished in the Farmer's Series, viz.. No. II., Kyle, in Ayrshire, and Netherby, in Cum- 

 berland; and No. III., Strathnaver, in the county of Sutherland. 



\ We, however, cannot help noticing the exaggerated account of farming in this district, 

 given in the Survey of Perthshire, as extracted, nnder the head of '• Expense and 

 Profit," from the details of a farmer who is there hekl up as a model of correctness, and 

 who is represented as having regularly realized a profit of more than four pounds per 

 acre on land held at a rent of three pounds. The charges upon which this statement are 

 founded are, in fact, all lower than the actual expense of cultivation, and the prices of 

 produce higher than they were during the years upon which the account is founded ; 

 and such mistaken views are highly injurious, as they tend to impress superficial en- 

 quirers with a belief that husbandry is a much better business than it really is. 



X The course of cropping in the temperate lands of this hundred is thus described: — 

 " First, through summer and winter fallow for oats or barley, with which sow IG lbs. of red 

 clover, or, in lieu thereof, 6 lbs. of white Dutch clover, and 10 lbs. of trefoil per acre. 

 Clover ley sown with wheat, the etches of which are dunged and sown with beans, that 

 are kept well hoed through the summer, and again sown with wheat. After this, a crop 

 of oats ur barley is sometimes taken ; but most generally the wheat stubbles are haulmed, 

 sown with winter tares foi- spr ng food, then dunged and prepared for cole-seed, which 

 is fed off and succeeded by wheat. The stubbles of this crop are dunged and sown 



