ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 195 



as suitable for clay lands, and it is equally feasible to take 

 oats instead of wheat in the fourth year. These changes are 

 not destructive of the principles of the rotation, which still 

 reads roots, grain, fodder, grain as before. 



Another more important modification simply effected 

 is to allow the seeds to remain down an additional year, 

 thereby changing the rotation from a four-course into a five- 

 course rotation. Simple as this is, it involves considerable 

 changes in the economy of a farm, and these changes are still 

 more marked when the suggested alteration is carried further 

 by allowing the seeds (clover) to lie three years, or, as some- 

 times is the case, four or more years. Such deviations from 

 the Norfolk rotation are more popular in the north and west 

 than in the south-east of England. They are a step in the 

 direction of laying land down in pasture, and point to a larger 

 head of live stock and lower acreage of corn. On the strict 

 four-course system, one-half the arable land is in corn, and 

 one-half is in root and fodder crops ; but on the five or six- 

 course two-fifths and one-third are respectively under corn, 

 and three-fifths and two-thirds are respectively under crops 

 suited for live stock. Ajuong other changes, the labour bill 

 is reduced, the number of horses can be lessened, and seed 

 bills, manure bills, and other charges, are also proportionally 

 diminished. In all districts where there is an abundant 

 rainfall these changes are beneficial, but they have never 

 found favour with farmers in the drier counties, such as 

 Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent. In the corn-growing 

 districts the climate is better adapted for cereals than for 

 grazing, and it is therefore found advisable to keep up the 

 corn area. Another objection often urged against allowing 

 clover to lie two or more years is the encouragement the 

 system affords to wire-worm, which becomes a serious plague 

 when it once takes possession of a field. 



The Northumberland rotation is merely a modification of 



o 2 





