Ch.VII.] ON THE ROTATION OF CROPS. 107 



tion among dairymen whose farms are situated upon stiff and heavy 

 land *: though it is an old Scotch saying, that — 



" He who sows wheat after bear, 

 Had need of muckle gear." 



Or, he should be a rich man who sows wheat after barley. Mr. Middle- 

 ton, indeed, urges the propriety of growing potatoes after tares or early 

 peas are off, in the same year, and then alternately following those crops 

 with wlieat, as a practice whicli might be beneficially extended to every 

 part of South Britain f : but he forgets to tell us how the manure is to be 

 procured for their production ; and, although he instances the fortunes 

 which have been made bv some of those men, yet they are to be looked 

 upon more in the light of market -gardeners than husbandmen, in the 

 common acceptation of the term. 



Upon rich alhivicd soils, when recently broken up, no rotation which it 

 is possible to continue for a great length of time can be said to prevail, for 

 the first object is to repay the expense of drainage and embanking. Thus, 

 upon newly broken up marshes in some parts of Lincolnshire, the tenants 

 are allowed to take three crops of white corn ; then potatoes ; and after 

 that, two crops of grain to one of potatoes ; or two courses of flax, 

 rape, and potatoes, followed by crops of flax and wheat. Thus on warp- 

 land along the course of the rivers Ouse and Humber, in Yorkshire, the 

 common course is, tlie first year to plough up and sow rape to be fed off ; 

 the second, rape-seed for a crop ; and during the four following years, 

 crops of wheat and oats ; or potatoes, wheat, and beans are taken al- 

 ternately J. It is, however, evident that such a mode of cultivation cannot 

 be long continued, and therefore the usual rotation, when the land lias been 

 brought under a settled course, is either — 



1. Rape, fed off. 4. Wheat. 



2. Oats. 5. Clover, either repeated with 



3. Beans. the exception of the rape, 

 or followed by — 



1. Oats, on the clover ley. 3. Rape. 



2. Wheat. 4. Oats. 



hi the Fens of Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Cambridgeshire, which are 

 usually incumbent either upon a clay soil or upon peat, no system is 

 generally pursued, except that of beginning with paring and burning; 

 which, upon land encumbered with coarse herbage, is certainly an excellent 

 practice, though its repetition may be thought injudicious §. Oats and 

 cole, — or rape, as they are indifferently called, — are the only produce till 

 the first luxuriance of the soil is in some degree abated ; but, when the 

 land begins to acquire more consistence, wheat, and crops of cole and rye- 

 grass, which are allowed to stand for seed, are frequently taken, according 

 to the peculiar properties of the soil : the fens, being of various degrees of 



* Survey of Middlesex, 3d edit. pp. 252 and 188. 



f Stevenson's Lancashire, p. 258. Holland's Cheshire, p. 131. 



+ Reports of the East Riding, p. 119, and of Lincolnshire, pp. 126, 127, and 322. 



§ On this, however, it is the opinion of a man of the most extensive experience as a 

 fen farmer, that the quality of cole for feeding sheep is not only not deteriorated by 

 the sward being a second time bnrned, but that, in no other way can it be procured of 

 equal goodness ; and that, when grown upon very old land, it is apt to kill the sheep put 

 upon ii. — Cambridgesh. Rep., p. 109. 



Many instances may, indeed, be pointed out where the soil has been improved by 

 having been paved and burned several times ; but then the land must be covered with a 

 rank sward, and the operation be very carefully performed, or it certainly will cause 

 material injtiry. — Ibid. p. 1 12. 



