248 OF FALLOWING. 



Ormiston has frequently experienced, that a welkprepared 

 fallow will produce a superior crop of barley, without dung, 

 to that produced with it, both upon naked fallow and after 

 potatoe. Mr Dudgeon of Prora likewise contends, that if 

 the land is of very good quality, a well-prepared fallow will 

 often produce better wheat, without dung, than with it. It 

 is proper, however, to add, that in general this can rarely 

 happen, unless an over-doze of manure is bestowed; a 

 practice which every good farmer studiously avoids. 



Besides these advantages, fallowing is supposed to con- 

 tribute materially to the destruction of snails and other 

 vermin in the ground, not only by destroying them and 

 their eggs in the course of the operation, but also by ex- 

 posing them to the attacks of rooks and other birds. Nor 

 is it improbable that something of a fertilizing quality is 

 added to the soil, or at any rate, that something obnoxious 

 to vegetation is extracted from the soil, by exposure to the 

 atmosphere. 



In addition to all these authorities, it may be proper to 

 add that of Mr Brown of Markle, to whom I am much 

 indebted for many useful observations on the several sec- 

 tions of this work, and on the subject of fallows in particu- 

 lar. In his valuable Treatise on Rural Affairs, he declares 

 it as his opinion, that without summer-fallow, conducted in 

 the manner already described, perfect husbandry is unat- 

 tainable on all heavy or cold soils, and upon every variety 

 incumbent on a close or retentive bottom ; * and Dr Co- 

 ventry, after considering the objections which have been 

 urged against summer-fallowing, the abuses to which it is 

 liable, and the advantages attending it, very justly observes, 

 that the discordance of practice and opinion respecting it 5 



See Brown's Treatise on Rural Afiairs, vol. i. p. 



