

ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 189 



an opportunity it gives the clay land farmer if he has his 

 seed raised in a seed-bed, and then transplanted out after 

 properly tilling and working his clay fields. The same remark 

 applies to kohl-rabi, which is another excellent fodder crop, 

 we cannot call it a root crop. Raise kohl rabi in a seed-bed, 

 and plant it out in May, June, and July, or even in August. 

 The May plants will give an autumn feed, and the July 

 and August planting would give a spring feed. Then again 

 mangel wurzel, although it dislikes the very stiffest class of 

 clay, yet it does well on clays which are rather too stiff and 

 hard for turnip cultivation. Mangel wurzel is a most excel- 

 lent crop for the South of England, or for a dry summer, and 

 it does best upon lands which incline rather to the sort of 

 which I am speaking. We may also to some extent 

 encroach on our bare fallow, especially on the lighter 

 portions of it, by sowing a few swedes and white turnips ; so 

 that, taking it altogether, there is an opportunity of placing 

 a good deal of our heavy land under some sort of fallowing 

 crop. 



The Holderness rotation is adapted for stiff soils of good 

 quality, and is usually rendered as follows : 



1st year. Fallow (bare or cropped). 



2nd Wheat. 



3rd Clover (mown or fed). 



4th Wheat. 



5th Beans. 



6th Wheat (previously dunged on bean stubble). 

 This rotation well exemplifies the principle already laid 

 down. It is an alternation of fodder or fallow crops with 

 grain crops. If we consider that the beans are grown for 

 home consumption, they may be fairly looked upon as a 

 fallowing crop. Beans require careful hoeing and inter- 

 culture, and if properly cultivated may be regarded as a 

 cleaning crop ; and if we allow them to be so regarded, then 



