"FALLOWS" AND WHAT FOLLOWS. 83 



The question seems simple enough : yet after all is 

 done, whether by Landlord or Tenant, or by both in 

 one, there is yet one more question to be asked be- 

 fore the answer can be prudently ventured. I do 

 not mean the question whether there is a long Lease : 

 that indeed must speak for itself : it is a question if 

 possible more important even than that. It is a 

 practical question; let us give it a practical eluci- 

 dation. 



It is one of the most expressive and meaning fea- 

 tures, rather than a deformity, of agriculture, that it 

 is full of exceptions and variations, and of what men 

 call Disappointments. However good in their way 

 broad principles, and laid-down courses of cropping 

 or of treatment may be, experience soon teaches us 

 that not only each soil, but to a certain extent each 

 field, has its own independent character and claim 

 upon the judgment, which will not be wisely sub- 

 mitted to the Procrustean law of this or that succes- 

 sion of crops. Skillful management is at least 

 required to coax a farm into the designed and fore- 

 determined Rotation of four-course or six-course, or 

 any other course of husbandry ; and to this end it is 

 generally useful, and sometimes amusing, to inquire 

 into the local reputation which almost every field 

 will be found, on inquiry, to have established for 



