106 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VII. 



On land of peculiar excellence in Mersea Island, on the Essex coast, 

 great crops of wheat and beans have been long taken alternately ; and an 

 instance is mentioned in the County Report of their having been not only 

 sown for thirty-six years with equal success, but that plan of husbandry 

 having been for some time changed, the farmer complained " that he had 

 not l)een paid by it so well as by that incessant cropping*." Sir John 

 Sinchvir, however, adds another, of a farmer who followed this plan 

 during fourteen years, near a town, from which he probably obtained large 

 (quantities of manure, and who had in that period grown four crops of 

 potatoes, three of beans, and seven of wheat ; but he found that although 

 the quantity of produce had not diminished, yet the quality of both the 

 wheat and beans had degenerated f. 



It may indeed be observed, that all the successful deviations from the 

 alternate system, arising from the more frequent growth of corn than 

 green crops, or the too frequent repetition of any one species, have been 

 either upon rich alluvial earth, or founded upon the a])plication of lime to 

 virgin soils, the powers of which have been forced into action by the 

 stimulus which it lias occasioned ; or else, by large quantities of putrescent 

 manure laid upon land of a deep and naturally strong staple. But, unless 

 under extraordinary circumstances of fertility in the earth, and manage- 

 ment in its cultivation, there must be a period beyond which such devia- 

 tions cannot be advantageously continued ; for, when lime has been 

 applied in any considerable quantity, and a course of severe cropping has 

 been afterwards pursued, the land, unless largely supplied with dung, will 

 become exhausted ; and dung, if too profusely applied, will injure the 

 quality of the corn, and produce crops more abundant in straw than grain. 

 Thus wheat, though sown alternately with turnips and clover, and pro- 

 fusely manured with both dung and sea-weed, and the turnips eaten off by 

 sheep, yet could not be grown with success, every other year, for any 

 great length of time % ; and we learn that many parts of the highly-culti- 

 vated district of the Lothians have been so mucli exhausted by the too 

 frequent use of lime, that the crops have lately failed, and much of the land 

 has consequently been laid down to pasture. 



Alternate crops of potatoes, wheat, and clover, have indeed been suc- 

 cessively grown upon a large scale during a long series of years, by some 

 farmers in the neighbourhood of London, and other large cities, where 

 extraneous manure can be readily obtained, and which ensure a sale for the 

 potatoes. There, however, the wheal is a crop of secondary value in com- 

 parison with the potatoes, and therefore the deterioration of its quality may 

 not be an object of much interest; but where that is regarded, a better 

 course is that followed in the vicinity of Edinburgh and Glasgow ; which 

 is — 



1. Potatoes. 2. Wheat. 3. Clover. 4. Oats. 



Though in this country, oats or barley would be made to precede clover, 

 and the latter to be succeeded by wheat ; which is not an uncommon rota- 



with l)eans, which are again followed by wheat ; after which the land is fallowed in 

 course, or sown with turnips, if its condition will permit. The whole is then esteemed 

 clean, good farming, and when the bean-land is not too loose and mellow, is always sure 

 to produce excellent wheat." — Essex Rep., vol. ii. p. '22S 



* Surv. of Essex, vol. i. p. 219. See also the Lincoln Rejiort, p. 322 ; and a note in 

 the last chapter of this work, p. 91. 



t Code of Agric. 3d edit. p. 448. 



J Ibid., p. 450. 



