ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 197 



of soil or season. The third year is perhaps the weakest part 

 of the rotation, as it is known that clover cannot be success- 

 fully grown at such short intervals as four years. This dis- 

 ability chiefly belongs to red clover (trifolium pratense), and 

 a ready means of evading clover sickness is to omit red 

 clover from mixtures of grass and clover-seeds, so that the 

 plant shall be sown only once in eight or twelve years. 

 Another alternative is to take beans or peas instead of clover, 

 and a third is to grow Italian rye-grass instead of clover. A 

 rotation thus modified will appear somewhat as follows, each 

 crop being considered as representing one year : Turnips, 

 barley, clover, wheat, swedes, oats, peas, barley, cabbages, 

 wheat, Italian rye-grass, wheat. 



The introduction of fodder crops as " catch crops " before 

 "roots" is another important modification. It is practised 

 to some extent in most counties, but in none more than in 

 Wilts and Hants, where it is co-extensive with the entire 

 area under root crops. The system consists in preparing the 

 wheat-stubble intended for roots and sowing it with trifolium, 

 or with rye, barley, or vetches. As these are fed off by the 

 sheep in the spring, the folds are broken, the ground is 

 reduced to a firm state, and mangel, turnips, or swedes are 

 drilled. The result is a system of double cropping on the 

 fallow breadth, well calculated for the maintenance of a 

 heavy sheep stock. Under this system good root crops may 

 be grown in the southern counties, where these crops can be 

 sown later than in the north. Owing to climatic peculiari- 

 ties, it could not be carried out successfully in the northern 

 counties. It is essentially a system for free or easy working 

 land, and for a southern climate. 



On all arable farms, where large flocks of sheep are kept 

 through the winter, there is a difficulty in managing the later 

 feeding of turnips or swedes on the land. The season is 

 waxing late, and it is time that the sowing of spring corn 





