012 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part lit 



of lime, where it can be obtained, is of the greatest lervice in enabling lucb soils to bring corn to its full 

 perfection. In the few of ["homer, the following course was recommended : — 1. Paring and burning 

 i.T rape; 2, oats ; and '•. wheal with grass-seeds; if the land were safe from water, the Lammas vit, if 



not, ipring wheat This short course, it is contended, i erves the land in heart; and it afterwards 



producea abundant crop* of grass. Bui long courses, In such a soil, run the lands tu weeds and straw, 



without quality in the grain. 



.".s71. L.uim.' The courses of crops applicable to this soil are t lumerous to be here inserted. If the 



sward is friable, the following rotat mu be adopted: — 1. Oats; 2. turnips; & wheat or barley; 



\. beans; 5. wheat; 6 fallow or turnips ; 7. wheat or barley, and grass-seeds. If the sward is very tough 

 and coarse, instead ol taking oats, it may be pared and burnt for turnips. 



5874 Sand. On rieh and deep sand] soils, the most valuable that can he raised is a crop of carrots. For 

 inferior sands, turnips, to be eaten on the ground ; which should then be laid down with barley and grass. 



5873. According to the i>>i/>r,>crtl system of laying down lauds to grass, land ought to be 

 previously made as clean and Fertile as possible. 'With that view, all the green crops raised 

 ought to be consumed upon the ground ; fallow or fallow crops ought not to he neglected ; 

 and the whole straw of the corn crops should be converted into manure, and applied to 

 oil that produced it. Above all, the mixing of calcareous matter with the soil, 

 either previously to, or during the course of, cropping, is essential. Nothing generally 

 improves meadows or pastures more than lime or marl : they sweeten the herbage, render 

 it more palatable to stock, and give it more nourishing properties. 



587 1 When turnips are raised upon light land, sheep should be folded on them ; whereas, if the land is 

 or wet, the crop should be drawn, and fed in some adjoining grass-field, or in sheds. If the land 

 is in nigh condition, it is customary to cart oil' half the turnips, and eat the other on the ground. But 

 this is not a plan to be recommended on poor soils. 



5875. It has been disputed whether grass-seeds should be soivn with or without corn. Tn favour of the first 

 practice, th it of uniting the two crops, it is maintained, that where equal pains are taken, the future crop 

 of grass will succeed as well as if they had been sown separately, while the same tilth answers for both. 

 On the other hand, it is observed, that as the land must, in that ease, be put into the best possible order, 

 there is a risk that the corn-crop will grow so luxuriantly as to overpower the grass-seeds, and, at any rate, 

 will exclude them from the benefit of the air and the dews. If the season also be wet, a corn crop is apt 

 to lodge, and the grass will, in a great measure, be destroyed. On soils moderately fertile, the grasses 

 have a better chance of succeeding ; but then, it is said, that the land is so much exhausted by producing 

 the corn-crops, that it seldom proves good grass land afterwards. In answer to these objections, it has 

 been urged, that where, from the richness ol the soil, there is any risk of sowing a full crop of corn, less 

 seed is used, even as low as one third of the usual quantity; and that a moderate crop of grain nurses the 

 young plants of grass, and protects them from the rays of a hot sun, without producing any materia] 

 injury. Where the two crops are united, barley is the preferable grain, except on peat Barley has a 

 tendency to loosen the texture of the ground in which it grows, which is favourable to the vegetation of 

 grass-seeds. In the choice of barley, that sort should be preferred which runs least to straw, and which is 

 the soonest ripe. On peat, a crop of oats is to be preferred. The most recent practice of the best farmers 

 is in favour of' sowing the grass-seeds without the addition of corn, or any other temporary plant. 



5876. The manner of saving the grass-seeds also requires to be particularly attended to. Machines 

 have been invented for that purpose, which answer well, but they are unfortunately too expensive for 

 the generality of farmers. It is a bad system, to mix seeds of different plants before sowing them, 

 in oriler to have the fewer casts. It is better, to sow each sort separately ; for the expense of going several 

 times over the ground is nothing, compared to the benefit of having each sort equally distributed. The 

 seeds of grasses being so light, ought never to be sown in a windy day, except by machinery, an equal 

 delivery being a point of great consequence. Wet weather ought likewise to be avoided, as the least 

 degree of poaching is injurious. Grass seeds ought to be well harrow ed, according to the nature of the 

 soil. 



.OsTV. When the corn is carried ajff] the young crop of grass should he but little fed during autumn, and 

 that only in dry weather; but heavily rolled in the following spring, in oriler to press the soil home to the 

 roots, it is then to be treated as permanent pasture. By attention to these particulars, the far greater 

 proportion of the meadows and pastures in the kingdom, of an inferior, or even medium quality, may be 

 broken up, not only with safety, but with great profit to all concerned. 



Chap. VIII. 



riants cultivated on a limited Scale for various Arts and Manufactures. 



5878. The plants used as food for men and animals are by far the most generally 

 cultivated in every country ; and, next, those if clothing, building, and other arts of conve- 

 nience or hiruri/. The former are often called agricultural, and the latter commercial 

 or manufactorial plants. Of manufactorial plants, only a few are at present cultivated 

 in Britain ; the national policy rendering it preferable to import them, or substi- 

 tutes, from other countries. Some, however, are still grown in nearly sufficient quan- 

 tities for home consumption, as the hop, mustard, rape, and a considerable quantity of 

 flax, anise, and carraway ; some hemp, teazle, and woad are also raised. These and 

 other plants may be classed as grown for the clothing, distilling, brewing, oil-making, 

 and domestic and medical arts. 



Sect. I. riants grown cliicfi/ for the Clothing Arts. 



5879. The clothing plants are flax, hemp, teazle, madder, woad, and weld ; the first 

 three are used by the manufacturer of the fabric, and the others by the dyer. 



