

ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. is? 



as teachers or examiners we ought to encourage a student 

 to be definite. If he is asked for certain information, let 

 him give it definitely in the line that is asked for, and not 

 confuse his answer by introducing matter which may be 

 according to good practice in some districts, but at the same 

 time is not according to the principles which you might be 

 supposed to insist upon in teaching the best practice. There- 

 fore, in prescribing rotations for stiff land let us stick to stiff 

 land crops. 



I will give some further illustrations of what I mean by 

 going 'through the three, four, or more years which constitute 

 a rotation, the first of which is, as I have already stated, 

 the fallowing year. Now if there is any position at all in 

 which a bare fallow may still be recommended, it is upon 

 stiff land. Therefore in planning a rotation for stiff land 

 I should consider it right to recommend a bare fallow, with 

 qualifications, because although bare fallowing may be properly 

 used upon stiff land, yet there is a class of crops, root crops 

 and kindred crops, which are yearly encroaching upon the 

 area of bare fallow. Besides that, thorough drainage, the 

 application of steam for tillage purposes, and the introduction 

 of improved implements and fertilizers, have placed clay land 

 more within our power than formerly, and what with these 

 improved appliances and the introduction of a larger variety 

 of crops, the domain of bare fallow is a diminishing area. 

 Upon a really stiff land I should say a bare fallow might 

 occupy a position, but also cabbages might be cultivated with 

 great advantage, as well as all those crops which are akin to 

 cabbages, such as thousand-headed kale, brocoli, curly kale, 

 kohl-rabi, and rape. All of these plants are thoroughly adapted 

 for clay land. They have strong, penetrating, deep-searching 

 roots, and they do not require the ground to be in such 

 a fine state of tilth as some of the other root crops. Rape 

 especially may be drilled upon clay land, which would scarcely 



