FARMERS' REGISTER. 



waste of labor and loss of crops. Ir" by fallowing 

 be meant repeated summer ploiighings, it follows 

 that on some lasids il is proper, and on others to- 

 tally wrong. It can never be right to make land 

 lighter that is too light already ; but there are few 

 instances where strong heavy land can be pulve- 

 rized loo much. It may be replied that this pul- 

 verization may be as well effected under crops as 

 in a slate of lallow. On some soils it may ; on 

 others it cannot. In veins of rich sand, it has been 

 /bund to be totally improper: such land will not 

 bear a summer fallow ; lor it can never be made 

 too close, if it can be kept clean ; and on such a 

 soil, this can be done better with a crop than with- 

 out one.* 



With regard to the system of fallowing in the 

 northern districts of the kingdom, it is considered 

 by most intelligent farmers as not generally suited 

 to the more tenacious clays of the southern coun- 

 ties of England. The faliow-land on such soils, 

 they contend, should not be broken up belbre it is 

 dry in April or May ; (or if ploughed in auiumn,. 

 and if the winter prove open, v^iih much rain, it 

 retains the moisture, becomes soured, and re- 

 quires much trouble to get it dried for cleaning in 

 spring. The treading of the cattle on such land, 

 while ploughing, also does much mischief, (or the 

 impression of their teet will hold water v/hen taking 

 up the last two (urrows of a ridge, and will, in a 

 great measure, prevent the proper turning over o( 

 the furrow slice. In wet seasons the horses should, 

 therefore, be always driven in the furrow. In 

 some situations it is, no doubt, an easy matter to 

 lay aside fallows, and to raise wheat after green 

 crops; but we are borne out by the opinion of prac- 

 tical agriculturists of great eminence, in saying, 

 that no man, who is generally acquainted with the 

 soil and climate of Great Britain, will attempt to 

 explode their use altogether. The essential points 

 of tillage — besides preserving the land in heart 

 with manure — consist in keeping it dry by drain- 

 age, and clearing it of weeds; if fallowed stea- 

 dily, with perseverance and judgment, they are 

 sure to succeed; but if negligently or imperlecily 

 performed, no land, however cheaply rented, can 

 leave a living profit to the (iirmer. 



Having thus stated our opinion on the expedi- 

 ency of fallowing, we should be wanting in candor 

 if we neglected to advert more particularly than by 

 general mention of its opponents, to the opposite 

 practice pursued for some years past, on heavy 

 land, by the late Thomas Greg, Esq. and General 

 Beatson : the details of which, although already 

 before the public, are so pertinent to the subject of 

 this chapter, that a further account of it cannot, 

 we think, be deemed misplaced. 



Greg's System. 

 The farm of Coles, near Buntinorford, in Hert- 

 fordshire, consists of 240 acres of arable land, 

 which is described as '-a very tenacious clay, in 

 some places mixed up with calcareous earth, 

 which causes it to bind at top after heavy rain ;" 

 and was (brmerly worked nearly under a three 

 course system of summer fallow, white corn, and 



* In common fields, where the course is two crops 

 and a fallow, or, as in some, three crops and a fallow, 

 the report says that '-on such soils, the fallowed year 

 fills the land with more weeds than can be got rid of 

 in the succeeding round of crops." — Siirv. of Wilts., 

 p. 56. 



pulse, or clover. Turnips were seldom sown, as 

 the difficulty of feeding or carting them off was 

 found to be injurious to ihe succeeding crop ; and, 

 consequently, only a small flock of 80 ewes or 140 

 wethers was kept, which was constantly Iblded 

 during the summer. Upon this, and the observa- 

 tions regarding the disadvantages attending the 

 similar plans of his neighbors, it is unnece'ssary 

 that we should here oiler any remark, for we 

 know that they have been in many instance- im- 

 proved, and our more immediate object is to slate 

 the system afterwards adopted by Mr. Greg, and 

 since followed by hie nephew, during upwards of 

 twenty years. 



Having, as he tells us, "established in his mind 

 as a general principle, that fertility was to be de- 

 rived Irom pulverizing the soil, clearing it from 

 water, and keeping il clean, he proceeded to in- 

 quire how those objects were to be obtained at the 

 least expense; and he (bund that the best me- 

 thod to promote them was to reverse the whole 

 system of the (brmer cultivation." Accordingly, 

 instead of ploughing four or five times only in 

 summer and spring and fallowing evjry third 

 year, he formed the determination "to 'plough 

 only once for a crop; to plough only in winter; never 

 to liallow the land in summer ; to practise the row 

 culture, and to use the horse-hoe." The mode in 

 vyhicli he carried his plan into execution was as 

 follows. 



He divided the farm as nearly as possible into 

 six equal parts, which are cultivated in a six-course 

 shilt, consisting of turnips ; barley or oats ; clover, 

 standing two years ; peas or beans, unon the ley: 

 and lastly, wheat. The ground is marked out by a 

 drill into ridges of five and a half leet in width, in- 

 tersected by furrows often inches wide; thus leaving 

 only fifty-six inches (or each land, which is worked 

 by a Suffolk swing plough, formed upon a con- 

 struction to cut a perfect trench of seven inches 

 deep, and requiring tburbouls to complete the ridge, 

 which is made sufficiently convex to describe anln- 

 clined plane of three inches fi-om the crown to each 

 furrow.* Thus water is prevented ii-om remaining 

 upon the land intended to be cropped, by being 

 drawn into the ten-inch furrow, Vv'hichis carried two 

 inches deeper ; the horses never tread but in a fur- 

 row ; and by the soundne.ss of this ploughing Mr. 

 G. states, that, "when etiected in the autumn or 

 belbre Christmas, a perlect friability is obtained in 

 the tilth by the influence of the frost during the 

 winter, and the surface water may be as "effec- 

 tually got rid of as by under-draining." 



As soon as the harvest is completed, the wheat- 

 stubbles are haumed, and the lands are marked 

 out and ploughed one bout : dung is then ploughed 

 in to the amount of ten loads per acre, and tTiree 

 bushels of winter tares with a bushel and a u. f 

 of winter barley are sown, to precede turni '=-. 

 the extent of about half the ground intended for 

 that crop, which, in common seasons, it does not 

 impede, as the tares are cut upon a moist f ■. a' 

 lor the turnip sowing. 



The tare sowing being finished, the bean and 



* Thus the first bents are ploughed onlv four inches 

 deep, which bouts are turned into one formino- eight 

 inches of sod in the centre of the lands. The°second 

 bout to be ploughed up to it, should be five inches 

 deep ; the third six, and the fourth nearly eight inches 

 See the Frontispiece of Mr. Greg's Pamphlet descrip- 

 tive of the process. 



