Ill 



The principal objection to this System, according to 

 Dr Coventry, is, that too much labour comes to be per- 

 formed at one period of the year, and that too much is 

 risked, or left dependent on the success of a single spe- 

 cies of crop. 



One most important observation on this subject has 

 been made by Mr Rennie of Oxwell Mains, namely, 

 that wheat sown after grass, early in autumn, often fails ; 

 but if sown in spring, it generally succeeds. It is ne- 

 ver at the same time so good in quality, or so produc- 

 tive in quantity, as wheat after turnips, or even after 

 pease and beans *. 



Mr Hume of East Barns observes, that it is more in 

 the rotation, than in the mode of ploughing, that most 

 farmers are deficient. He is convinced from experience, 

 that pease are not calculated for East-Lothian to any ex- 

 tent : if his lands therefore were unfit to carry beans, and 

 were dry enough for turnips, he would consider the four- 

 course shift of i. Turnips ; 2. Oats, Barley, or Wheat; 

 3. Grass, and 4. Oats, as the best mode ; and if the farm 

 were so situated, as not to be able to give a thin dung- 

 ing every fourth year, in the turnip drills, in that case 

 let the grass remain two, or even three years old, so as 



* It would be well worth while for some English farmers 

 to try winter wheat, accustomed to be sown in spring, on 

 their clover leys, particularly where any failure in their win- 

 ter sown crops had taken place. The best plan would be, to 

 sow turnips early on the clover ley, to eat them off with sheep 

 in spring, and then to sow winter wheat. The dung of the 

 sheep, would occasion rapid vegetation. There would be no 

 risk from the frost, or the wire- worm, which last the tread- 

 ing of the sheep, with perhaps some yonng cattle, would ef- 

 fectually destroy, and the land would be in excellent order for 

 the production of wheat. This plan, if it succeeded, would 

 render this country at once independent of foreign nations 

 for bread corn. 



