KOTATiox ciioi's.] MODEliN EXGLISII FAHMING. 



[AnTiiun Youyo. 



Olio 40 lbs. weight." Columella says, that " in 

 Gaul, the bulbd are used as winter food for 

 cattle aucl slicei);" showing that the aiieieiit 

 fathers of our neighbours across tho Clianiiel 

 were not ignorant of tho value of tho turnip, 

 in supplying their Hocks and herds willi 

 nourialiiug food throughout tho long, dreary 

 months of tho wiuter. Nor is marling a 

 discovery of the moderns, for it seems to havi- 

 been, both in Gaul and Britain, a sta[)lL' 

 practice in husbandry. Pliny recommeuds 

 six dill'erent kinds of marl used for pulverising 

 the soil. Some were of a clayey description, 

 which were used for light ground ; some 

 sandy, for heavy. Some were of a rocky son, 

 which pre^c^ved its form till several years of 

 the effects of sun, rain, and frost reduced it to 

 amalgamate with the soil. Some lasted ten, 

 some thirty, and some fifty years. Some were 

 got at in a day : and one kind which endured 

 eighty years, and which no man had ever been 

 known to apply twice to the same land, was 

 obtained in Britain from narrow pits, dug to 

 a depth of thirty yards. 



THE ROTATION OF CROPS. 



The course of Eoman agriculture, with some 

 partial exceptions, was of the simplest de- 

 scription — a crop of grain and a fallow. Every 

 year one-half of the arable laud was in grain, 

 and the other half in fallow. A third of this 

 was sown with a green crop of some kind, to 

 be given to the cattle ; and this was the only 

 portion of the fallow that received the benefits 

 of manure. The result of this mode was, that 

 the arable land was manured once in six years ; 

 and, in that period, produced three crops of 

 grain, and one of green stuff". This system, 

 by degrees, wore out the land. It took tlie 

 very heart out of it, so to speak ; so tliat, in 

 the time of Varro, a great falling-ofT had taken 

 place in the returns for the quantity of seed 

 sown. Fi'.ty years later, Cicero gives an 

 account of the rich Sicilian lands, and claims 

 2| bushels to the statute acre. This, well 

 cultivated, seems to have yielded eight or ten 

 for one, equal to t.venty or twenty-five bushels 

 respectively. In another half century. Colu- 

 mella tells us, tliat over a large part of Italy, 

 the instances are few in which the return is 

 more than four to one ; and the increasing 

 lamentations over the penury with which the 



lurid returned it8 grain for the seed, as we 



descend in tho series of authorB, aro in entire 

 accordanco with the paucity of tla-ir crops. 



In England, during tho last century, tho 

 rotation of crops wa^ viewed as tho special 

 characteristic of tho husbandry of Norfolk. 

 Unlil past tho year 17.jO, no just ideas upon 

 tho subject seem to have been formed in any 

 part of the kingdom ; in proof of which, Sir 

 Juhii Sinclair makes the remark, that all 

 courses were thought to bo alike, and merit- 

 ing neither censure nor praise. Tho estab- 

 lished rule upon which the farmers of Norfolk 

 acted, and to wliicii they doggedly adhered, 

 was never to take off tho same ground two 

 corn crops in succession. But this formed 

 only one rule or part in tho whole of a valu- 

 able system. They had not discovered tho 

 importance of alternating grain with other 

 products of tho soil ; but they had perceived 

 and I'ound the advantage of following turnips 

 with barley ; this with clover ; and this with 

 wheat. Tliey had discovered that the fibrous 

 roots of the clover were the best possible 

 pabulum for the nourishment of the wheat, 

 and that nothing else answered so well. By 

 1767, Young found this four-course system 

 widely prevalent, the principal variation being 

 in the duration of tlie clover, which some 

 farmers permitted to remain for two or three 

 seasons previously to its being broken up for 

 wheat. All these changes occurred during 

 the thirty years between 1730 and 1700 ; 

 but, with slight exceptions, they were entirely 

 confined to Norfolk ; and it was not till Young 

 made his appearance upon the scene, that 

 they began to penetrate into other districts. 



ARTHUR YOUNG. 



One who did so much, in his time, to en- 

 lighten the agricultural mind of this countrv 

 when it was involved in a cloud of thick dark- 

 ness, merits some notice in these pages. The 

 reclamation of barren sheep-walks ; an im- 

 provement in the different breeds of live- 

 stock ; an increase in the quantity of food 

 grown on arable land for their support ; and a 

 better rotation of crops, are the principal 

 events which distinguish tho progress of 

 English agriculture during the last century. 

 After some advances had been made, the next 

 step was to demolisli those obstructions which 



bOl 



