116 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VIII. 



to a second crop of beans. Thus we should, in preference, advise wheat 

 instead of barley at No. 4 ; then beans, dunged ; and followed by barley, 

 clover, and oats ; or, perhaps still better, the Essex course of allowing 

 barley and clover to be the crops immediately succeeding the fallow. 

 Many intelligent farmers, indeed, are of opinion that it would be more pro- 

 fitable to stop at the sixth crop, and to make it wheat instead of either 

 barley or oats ; thus recommencing the course with a fallow, or with turnips. 

 Mr. Russell, of Kenilworth, who has lately written on the subject, however, 

 recommends the following course upon good wheat and bean land, namely — 



1. Wheat on a Clover ley. 5. Wheat. 



2. Tares. 6. Tares. 



3. Barley. ' 7. Barley. 



4. Beans. 8. Clover. 



It will, however, not escape observation, that he excludes the fallow; 

 that he ])uts tares in preference to turnips, both on the presum])tion that it 

 is equal in profit to a crop of common turnips, and the subsequent barley 

 produces a better crop after the grass than after the turnips *; for clover is 

 almost sure to succeed after a well-managed fallow ; but, if it fails, so, in a 

 great measure, will the following crops. 



No. III. 

 Is calculated for claya and loams of an inferior description to those 

 already treated of ; and consists of — 



1. Fallow, with dung. 4. Oats. 



2. Wheat. 5. Beans, drilled and horse-hoed. 



3. Clover and Rye-Grass. 6. W heat. 



According to this rotation the rules of good husbandry are strictly ad- 

 liered to ; it is, indeed, one of the best courses that can be devised for soils 

 of that description ; and if the land be well drained, as well as carefully 

 tilled, it will produce excellent croi)s, and may be kept without the recur- 

 rence of a fallow for some time longer than the rotation above stated, but 

 the land must be, in either case, well dunged. 



Instead of this course, however, another rotation is sometimes followed ; 

 which beginning, as in the former, with a bare fallow and wheat, is then 

 carried on with grass for two years, after which oats and wheat are succes- 

 sively taken. This system of cross-cropping, though contrary to the general 

 principles of good husbandry, may perhaps be justifiable in practice on 

 strong soils and in certain climates : its supporters maintain that beans are 

 an uncertain crop, and cultivated at considerable expense, and that in no 

 other way can corn be grown in equal quantity, and of equal value, at so 

 little cost. On cold thin lands it may also be not unfrequently found the 

 surest -mode of repaying the charges of cultivation. 



No. IV. 

 Light, calcareous, or gravelly soils, are verv generally managed ac- 

 cording to the Norfolk svstem, which has been alreadv described ; but it 

 may be doubted whether its continuance for any great lengtli of time is 

 advisable, as both turnips and clover are found to fall off when repeated 

 so often as once in four years. Perhaps, therefore, the course might be 

 improved by extending it, as we have formerly remarked, to eight years, 

 either under the following rotation, as advised by Mr. Brown ; for instance, 

 to sow the seeds for pasture in the second year, and keep the ground three 

 years under grass : thus, — 



* Treatise on Practical and Chemical Agriculture, p. 92, 103, and 317. 



