156 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. X. 



avoided, but it requires great circumspection and practical experience to 

 ascertain when it may be proper to adopt it ; for, although the temperature 

 of the season may have pushed the plants too forward, yet a change may 

 immediately take place, and their having been thus weakened^ will throw 

 them too much back. 



If the plants tiller with such strength as to grow in thick tufts 

 which cross each other, or that they appear likely to become lodged, then 

 it may be safely adopted ; otherwise, it is better to leave the crop to its 

 chance, without meddling with it, and in no case should it be attempted 

 unless the vegetation be extremely rank. The practice of feeding, though 

 by far the most general, has yet been objected to, because the sheep prefer 

 the tender blade in the heart of the plant, which ought to be preserved, and 

 reject the coarse blades which ought to be taken off; but if adopted, such 

 a number should be put upon the ground at once, as will eat the wheat 

 down to the required distance promptly, and, when removed, they should 

 not be again returned to the land. If mown, the work should be very 

 carefully performed, at such a distance from the surface of the land as not 

 to touch the heart of the plants*. 



SUCCESSION OP CROPS. 



Universal experience has proved, that to sow wheat a second time upon 

 the same land without an intermediate crop, is exhausting to the soil, and, 

 if pursued for any length of time, eventually unprofitable to the farmer ; 

 for, although it was pursued by Tull, and has been upheld by a few other 

 writers, yet his plan consisted in sowing the corn at such wide intervals 

 that only half of the ground was really cropped, and the remainder was 

 left in a state of fallow. It is, however, a curious fact, that the white and 

 brown species of wheat, if sown alternately, produce better crops than if 

 the same sort be sown in the following years. It is, indeed, injudicious to 

 sow wheat upon the stubble of any corn crop, and it can only be justified 

 by peculiar circumstances ; but, when expedient, it is always found to 

 succeed better after oats than after barley. 



Clover has been called " the mother of wheat," and the ley is justly a 

 favourite preparation for the crop ; but it ought not to be repeated more 

 than once in eight years, and it should then only be sown when the ground 

 is in such a state of cleanness, and so well manured, as to ensure the pro- 

 duction of an abundant sward of grass ; for, if this be not obtained, the wheat 

 will invariably be found proportionately deficient. On good lands, which 

 do not require a second year in grass, it will also be generally found most 

 advisable to break it up after the first year's crops have been taken off; 

 in which case, the wheat may be sown, as we have already observed, upon 

 a single ploughing, and thus a very considerable expense will be saved in 

 the tillage of the ground. 



Much difference of opinion prevails upon the subject of cutting both 

 crops, or only cutting the first, and allowing the second to be pastured: 

 the latter is the most generally practised, and consequently the most 

 approved, but so many instances have been stated of superior crops of wheat 

 havin<y been obtainecl after both the crops of clover had been mown, that 

 it is very difficult to draw any positive conclusion regarding the superiority 

 of either system. When the crops of clover have been very good, the 

 experiments are generally in favour of allowing both to stand for the scythe ; 

 and we believe that the superiority of that plan will be found to consist in 



* See Blaikie on Mildew, 2iul Edit., p. 19; and VonThaer.Princ. Rais. d'Agric.,. 2nde 

 Edit., torn. iv. f^ lOlfi. 



