121 



4- Partly wheat, but principally potato oats j but he has 

 a fifth division which is kept in grass, and which is 

 thrown out of the rotation for three, four or five years, 

 and then brought in again; so that in the course of a 

 twenty-one years lease, each division, in its turn, remains 

 in grass for that period of time. In lands which are not 

 naturally fertile and productive, this plan must be at- 

 tended with very advantageous consequences. Every 

 part of a farm thus derives a proportional share of the 

 advantage of being kept in grass, which is infinitely pre- 

 ferable to the plan of preserving one part of a farm con- 

 stantly in grass, and the other half in pasture. 



4. Miscellaneous Particulars. 



_, . . . , ..,.:.. 



There still remain some particulars, winch it was dit 



ficult to comprehend under any of the preceding beads. 



I. When any farm or district begins to be improved, 

 it is necessary to commence with what may be called 

 gentle rotations ; that is to say, with crops Hot likely to 

 exhaust the soil. When the late Earl of Fimllater be- 

 gan his improvements in the county of Banff, every field 

 was kept for four or five years in grass before any white 

 crops were taken from it. Ihe soil was thus enriched, 

 and is now enabled to undergo more severe cropping. 

 Fairley's rotation in Ayrshire was of the same descrip- 

 tion : the land was pastured with dairy stock for six or 

 nine years ; some dung or lime were then applied, 

 and three successive crops of oats were taken ; then a 

 crop of hay, and afterwards the land was pastured as 

 formerly. This system, though now reprobated, was 

 suited to the times when it was established, and has laid 

 the foundation of the present fertility of Ayrshire. Mr 

 Church of Hitchell observes, that for moderate soils, ha- 



