OF FALLOWING. 257 



cannot be questioned ; at the same time it is hardly possi- 

 ble, that the ground could be plaeed in that husbandman- 

 like condition, by the culture given to the rape crop, as by 

 a naked fallow. To decide the question, it would be ne- 

 cessary to fallow a part of the same field, and to compare 

 the future produce of the part that grew rape, with that 

 which was fallowed. Nor will this plan, it is said, at all suit 

 a farm entirely consisting of clay, and consequently not cal- 

 culated for a sheep stock. It would be a dangerous and im- 

 prudent experiment, to purchase sheep for the consumption 

 of a few weeks food, and to be compelled to send them to 

 market, when the rape was finished, in September.* 



These hints are submitted to the consideration of intel- 

 ligent farmers, who may be of opinion, that notwithstand- 

 ing the great improvements that have been made in agri- 

 culture,, it is still capable of amendment, and that it cannot 

 be brought to the perfection of which it is capable, without 

 ample discussion, and repeated experiments. It must be 

 admitted, that though fallows are now in a manner explo- 

 ded by many of the ablest farmers in England, more especi- 

 ally in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, yet the greater 

 moisture of the Scotch climate, seems to render them so 

 necessary in our wet and tenacious clays, that Mr Rennie 

 of Phantassie emphatically calls them " the main-spring of 

 the husbandry of Scotland." But though fallows seem to be 

 necessary in this country, yet, in process of time, their fre- 

 quency may be diminished. The climate may improve as 

 cultivation is extended : By perpetual accessions of lime 

 and dung, the texture of our strong soils must be altered, 

 and will become more of a loamy nature: By repeated 

 cleanings, the quantity of weeds of all descriptions must be 



* Farmer's Magazine, June 1812, p. 237. 

 VOL. I. R 



