ROTATION OE CROPS. 31 



there made to alternate with red clover and wheat, 

 according to the method pointed out by Von Thaer. 

 Flax is also cultivated, but only on a small scale, in most 

 of the gardens, farms, and small holdings of La Sologne, 

 where it is made to alternate with cabbages and cereal 

 crops. This mode of husbandry, which is performed 

 with the spade, requires a large quantity of well-rotted 

 dung, and thus absorbs an important proportion of 

 manure in places where its scarcity and the poorness of 

 the soil make it imperative to economise every fertilising 

 material for the sake of the fields destined to more wide- 

 extending branches of agriculture. 



"Max," continues Von Thaer, "succeeds nowhere 

 better than on rich and fertile ground that has been 

 freshly broken up, or on land which has lain for several 

 years in grass. I believe that it is difficult to employ 

 such land in a more profitable way, the first year of its 

 being brought into cultivation again. It is necessary to 

 peel it to a greater or less depth, according to the thick- 

 ness of the stratum of turf, which latter will have to be 

 scrupulously turned. To effect this purpose, it will be 

 needful to call in the aid of the fork and the spade in 

 such places as the plough has imperfectly acted upon. 

 The operation ought to be performed in autumn, or at 

 the very commencement of spring ; the harrow is set to 

 work, and the roller is made to follow immediately 

 afterwards, to prevent the grass from sprouting between 

 the furrows. At the time of sowing, the surface is well 

 harrowed; the flax is sown, covered with the harrow, 

 and then pressed down hard with the roller. I have 

 never seen a more vigorous plant of flax, with taller 

 stems, or which carried itself more firmly erect, than flax 

 grown on such fresh-broken land as this ; it also has the 

 additional advantage of not requiring to be weeded, tho 

 very most which makes its appearance are the roots of 

 a few of the most hardy and obstinate weeds ; and these 

 roots can easily be extracted. The turf, which decays 

 during the summer beneath the crop of flax, becomes so 

 permeable and light, that no further preparation for the 



