PRINCIPLES OF FARMING. 219 



he seen among'st it ; ever recollect that Aveeds occTipy space 

 and consume nutriment, displacing" corn, and robbing- tlie 

 land. 



6. Never sow two crops of one g'enus in succession; le- 

 gumes or pulse may follow cereal gTain,and cereal g-rain may 

 follow legumes or pidse ; but never cereal after cereal, or 

 pulse after ])ulse. Recollect rye-g'rass is a cereal plant, and 

 unsuits the land for white-straw corn. 



7. In apportioning- the rate of seed per acre, do not lose 

 sight of the bad consequences that must ensue if too much 

 be sown. Bear in mind, that if so much be sown as to 

 produce more plants at first than the space will afterwards 

 allow to attain maturity, the latter growth of the whole 

 will be impeded, and a diseased stage will commence, 

 as soon as the plants cover the ground, and remain till 

 harvest. 



8. Manure should be applied only to green or cattle 

 crops, and never to corn ; by giving it to the former, 

 the earth derives the advantau-e of the extra dressin"" 

 that the extra growth returns ; but when applied to corn, 

 the earth is so much the more exhausted by the extra 

 growth of straw, and frequently, too, the grain is thereby 

 positively injured by being beat down and blighted in 

 the straw, that it always is made more hazardous by 

 dressing. 



9. Were farmers to buy nil their manures, they woidd 

 find that the cost of maintaining their land in fair heart 

 "would be about 1/. per acre per annum. This fjuantity of 

 dressing, every farm, in fair productive cultivation, would 

 supply of itself, if a proper use and economy be made of 

 its material to form manure, and a due care taken of it 

 afterwards ; but from misapplication and waste of the straw 

 and fodder, and from negligence in the preservation of the 

 dung and urine, at least half is usually lost, and the arable 

 land of England may thus be said to be prejudiced at least 

 10s. per acre. 



10. Were no other injury done to the crops by trees and 

 hedges in small enclosures, than that which arises from their 

 mischievous shade and shelter, it woidd be equivalent to the 

 ordinary rent of such fields ; but the farmers sustain a fur- 

 ther loss in the additional time occupied in its tillage, by the 

 more frequent stoppages and turns they cause, and by the 

 encouragement to idleness in the men that their cover alibrds. 

 I believe arable fields with lar^'c hedges and hedge-row tim- 



