316 OF ROTATION OF CROPS. 



one unfavourable season ; and if the article which he raised 

 were not saleable, the land had better have remained un- 

 ploughed. 



2. To have the crops so arranged, that the labour of plough- 

 ing for each, of sowing, weeding, reaping, &c. shall proceed 

 in a regular succession, and that the labour or business be 

 not too much crowded on the farmer, at any one season of 

 the year, nor any quantity of extra stock rendered neces- 

 sary ; but that the crops produced on the farm, shall be cul- 

 tivated by the same hands, and with the same cattle. To 

 this general rule, hand-hoers in spring and summer, and 

 reapers in autumn, must form an exception. 



3. To avoid forcing crops, or frequent repetitions of the 

 same articles or species ;* as a diminution both in quantity 

 and quality, except in very rare instances, never fails to be 

 the consequence. By frequent repetitions of the same crops, 

 (as Mr Scott of Craiglockhart remarks), the soil loses sta- 

 mina, which neither manure nor cultivation can renovate. 

 Great luxuriance in vegetation can be made to take place, 

 without much real productiveness, as we see where grain is 

 sown on the sites of dunghills.f 



4-. To avoid two white crops in succession, but alternately 

 to have while arid green crops. On this head, it is con- 

 tended, that it is impossible to lay down general rules, with- 

 out modifying them by such circumstances as are often only 



The celebrated George Culley is of opinion, that the greater distance 

 the repetition of any sort of crop can be kept, the better, and that the 

 rule holds good in regard to leguminous, as well as white crops. It 

 would seem, however, from Mr Butterworth's experiments, that carrots 

 are an exception. 



t Mr Andrew of Tillilumb, near Perth, finds, that if clover is cultiva- 

 ted only once in eight years, the produce is not only about double, but 

 that the succeeding crop of oats is better by two bolls per acre. 



