57 



serves, that our southern neighbours have much the ad- 

 vantage of us in the bean husbandry. The great dis- 

 tress attending bean crops with us, is their lateness. In 

 passing through the country near Aylesbury, he savr 

 their beans covering the ground, and all in bloom on the 

 1 4th of June. Our wet weather generally commences 

 about the aoth of October ; before that period, in Scot- 

 land, the winter wheat should all be sown, but the beans 

 are often in the fields. He is of opinion, that fallows 

 may be much reduced in number, by carefully occupy- 

 ing the land, where the climate will admit of it, with 

 drilled beans, but still that there is a certain deacription 

 of land, that cannot be cultivated weil, without occa- 

 sional fallows. 



Dr Coventry's opinion of fallowing is, that in the first 

 rounds or courses of cultivating, a complete naked fal- 

 low is necessary : but in after courses, when the grounds 

 have acquired a better texture, and are not so liable to 

 become foul, they may be kept in good order by fallow 

 or horse-hoed crops, such as beans, potatoes, common 

 and Swedish turnips, cabbages, and any other species 

 suiting the nature of the soil, and that mode of culture. 



It is proper to add, that an intelligent farmer, (Mr 

 Andrew of Tillil *nb near Perth), when he fallows, 

 g ives no manure, as he finds that fallow wheat, with ma- 

 nure, is apt to be too luxuriant. Mr Allan of Craig- 



H 



horses can subsist to equal advantage on yams and Swedish 

 turnips: What a promising prospect for increasing the growth 

 of wheat, and bringing fields to a high state of cultivation 

 without losing a crop ! One acre of yams or Swedish turnips 

 will afford more subsistence for either horses or cattle, than 

 two of cats or any other grain. 



