260 TO TURN GRASS LAND INTO ARABLE. 



times in tlie spring', and followed Ly wheat, barley, or oats. 

 Those crops, according- to the soil, are succeeded hy vetches, 

 beans, or other g'reen crops, and then regular rotations com- 

 mence, some of which are indicated in our estimates, but, of 

 course, subject to variations from soil, situation, and climate. 

 This is a g'eneral outline, merely indicative of Avhat may be 

 successfully practised. It has been thoug-ht an advantag'e — an 

 idea not yet entirely banished — to break up land in autumn, 

 to pare and burn, spread all the ashes, and plough and sow 

 wheat ; but this has not always been attended with success ; 

 and when paring- and burning- have not been resorted to, 

 the wheat scarcely ever succeeds. The hollowness induced 

 by sods and angular fibrous hmips, with undecomposed 

 g-rass and roots, render the wheat plant more liable to be 

 killed by frost, and more susceptible of the attacks of such 

 insects and vermin as may have escaped destruction by 

 burning-, than when a complete disintegration of the touglil}'' 

 matted soils has been eftected, and the fibrous lumps pul- 

 verized by the treading- of sheep in consuming- the previous 

 g-reen crops. The plan of sowing- wheat without the inter- 

 vention of a g-reen crop is imcertain in its results, and will 

 be discarded by time and experience. The farmer, by 

 merely feeling- his way in this matter, has been led to adopt 

 that plan which he has found best, without adhering- to any 

 imif'orm method; and hence may have arisen variations in 

 the modes of breaking- up land, Avhich become sanctioned 

 under the name of local peculiarities ; and the methods I am 

 just about to describe may possibly possess something- sa- 

 vouring- of local ]ieculiarity, and as such not applicable to all 

 situations and climates; but I can see nothing- to ])revent 

 some or other of them from being- applicable to lands in all 

 parts of England. The methods for breaking- up grass land 

 have not yet settled down into one general principle : I 

 therefore only give the practices that have occiu-red iinder 

 my own observation; and for the pur]iose of confirming 

 those observations I have taxed the kindness of my neigh- 

 bours, and will concisely describe their most recent practice, 

 with its successes and failures. 



The methods adopted by some of them assume the cha- 

 racter of experiments, and are so apjilicable that one might 

 suppose them to have been undertaken expressly to elucidate 

 the i>i-esent subject. The fact being- otherwise will probably 

 render them more valuable, as they come forth divested of 

 e/ej-ytliiug in the nature of bias; and the persons themselves 



