50 



has spread from Sussex into Essex, where they have not 

 hitherto tried it much with barley and oats. In regard 

 to oats, however, this plan has been found to answer un- 

 commonly well in the strong lands at Petworth, in 

 Sussex. 



6. ON FALLOWING. 



Fallowing, when first introduced into Scotland, was 

 undoubtedly one of the greatest sources of improvement 

 that could possibly have been suggested ; for the ground 

 in cultivation, having been kept in constant tillage for 

 ages, was infested with weeds of various descriptions, 

 which by no other means could have been kept down or 

 eradicated. In dry soils, since the introduction of the 

 turnip husbandry, fallowing has no longer become neces- 

 sary * ; but in strong lands, it is still accounted the foun- 

 dation of their fertility, by numbers of the most intelli- 

 gent practical farmers that Scotland boasts of. 



* A farmer in Angus, ("Mr Brown of Conomyth,) recom- 

 mends fallows even in dry soils. He states, in a communi- 

 cation to the author, that one-seventh of the dry land of his 

 farm is in fallow or turnips, but in general he only sows 

 about ten acres of it turnips, as he finds that he has much 

 better grass, when sown among wheat after fallow, than with 

 oats after turnips ; and when broke up from lea, the differ- 

 ence of the oat crop, in favour of bare fallow, is also discer- 

 nible. A crop of wheat is obtained at less exptnce than tur- 

 nips and oats, and on an average of years, is as valuable : 

 the manure produced by wheat straw may not be so rich as 

 when many turnips are raised, but a greater quantity is pro- 

 cured, and if driven out into a large dunghil in the winter 

 months, will answer perfectly well for fallows. 



