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should not have been compelled 

 to read so much about the collec- 

 tion ofnitre, and other salts from the 

 atmosphere, when there was, in 

 fact no proof that any such deposits 

 were made, and when it is quite as 

 probable that these if any, which 

 were in the land before, might es- 

 cape by this exposure to the air, 

 as that any more should be collect- 

 ed. We, however, mean to con- 

 fine ourselves in this article, sim- 

 ply to facts, which are important 

 to the farmer, leaving to those, 

 who prefer to plunge into the mists 

 of theory, the pleasure of so doing. 



Though the English farmer un- 

 derstands by Fallowing, a season 

 of greater or less labour on his un- 

 cropped lands, the French, and 

 some of the American Farmers 

 understand by it an entire aban- 

 donment of the soil to such weeds, 

 or plants, as are useless, or nearly 

 so to man and animals, fora geater 

 or less period, under some vague 

 notion, that the land will recruit 

 itself, in a few years, and be fit 

 again for cultivation. There are, 

 however, many American farmers, 

 who pursue the English mode of 

 fallowing, and instead of a period 

 of repose, the land is constantly 

 moved by the plough, and the 

 harrow. 



We understand, that what we 

 have described as the plan of some 

 American and French farmers — 

 that of letting the land lie un- 

 touched has been of late years en- 

 tirely exploded by every man of 

 sense in both countries ; And, if 

 it were necessary, for the recruit- 

 ing of exhausted lands, to abandon 

 the raising of grain, potatoes, or 



other roots, it would be better io 

 plant such lands with any species 

 of trees that would thrive in it, 

 rather than to abandon it to such 

 useless plants as might voluntarily 

 spring up upon it. 



With respect to the spirited, 

 and expensive mode of summer 

 fallowing adapted in England, 

 which often extends to four, five, 

 and even seven successive opera- 

 tions on the soil, in one summer, 

 it is thought that it may be useful, 

 iij lands peculiarly troubled with 

 pernicious weeds as the most suc- 

 cessful mode of extirpating them. 

 But in general, it is now thought, 

 even in that country, that a judi- 

 cious rotation of crops is much 

 preferable on every account. It 

 saves the loss of income in lands 

 left in fallow ; and as it is now be- 

 lieved on better evidence than the 

 theories can boast, at which we 

 have just smiled, that each plant 

 has a preference to some species 

 of nourishment over others; and 

 that when this is exhausted in any 

 given soil, and the plant will no 

 longer thrive, another plant may 

 flourish perfectly well on the same 

 lands, it seems to be probable, that, 

 by a rotation of crops, and a pro- 

 per application of manures we 

 may render fallows entirely un- 

 necessary. Such, at least, we be- 

 lieve to be the prevailing opinions 

 of intelligent men, in Great Britain, 

 France and the United States. 



WINTER FALLOWING, IS Only 



breaking up the land, or plough- 

 ing it in the fall, and leaving 

 it exposed to the action of the 

 frosts of winter. There is no 

 country in the world, where this 



