OF FALLOWINfi. 251 



fession, could not but question his own judgment, and to 

 doubt it rather than theirs. He confesses himself there- 

 fore much shaken in his opinions. His practice has been, 

 to make the intervals of his green crop so wide, as to 

 admit of a great deal of cleaning ; but yet he candidly 

 acknowledges, that he cannot shew his land, in equal order, 

 with what he observed in East Lothian and Berwickshire- 

 Fallows, he observes, are generally done in so slovenly a 

 manner as not to deserve the name. Before deciding on. 

 their utility, Mr Curwcn, with great propriety, urges their 

 being attended to with the same care and attention that is 

 practised in East Lothian. Indeed, in a district where 

 such rents are paid, (the greatest in the united kingdom), 

 whilst summer-fallow is steadily maintained, and judiciously 

 executed, the boldest theorist should pause, before he pro- 

 nounces decidedly against a practice, the beneficial conse- 

 quences of which are thus strikingly demonstrated.* 



4. Cases where fallowing strong lands is not practised in 

 Scotland. Near towns, where manure abounds, and rents 

 are high, the fallowing process is avoided as much as pos- 



fertility of the land be above the degree mentioned, so as to bear nin 

 or more bolls, or about 36 bushels of beans, or a produce of cabbages 

 corresponding to that amount of beans, then such fallow crops, correctly 

 managed, and not otherwise, may, with advantage, totally supersede the 

 employment of any summer-fallow. Many husbandmen have relinquish- 

 ed, with great benefit, on clay soils, naked fallows for fallow crops, 

 namely, such as are raised in rows, and capable of being properly clean- 

 ed by horse-hoeing ; and others have done so without any gain, and 

 some with direct loss ; and both the errors in practice, and the discord- 

 ance in opinion on this matter, must be referred, to a want of due discri- 

 mination in the difference of cases." 

 * See Report of the Workington Society, for the year 1810, p. 88,. 



