326 OF ROTATION OF CROPS. 



(and that is in general the preferable system, wheat being 

 almost totally laid aside), but in land of a very dry qua- 

 lity, the drought is frequently very prejudicial to the crop 

 of oats, which require moisture, and consequently should be 

 sown early in dry climates. It is, however, owing to their 

 being so late in sowing their grain, and to shallow plough- 

 ing, that oats do not succeed in Norfolk. 



The principal objection to this system, according to Dr 

 Coventry, is, that too much labour comes to be performed 

 at one period of the year, and that too much is risked, or 

 left dependent on the success of a single species of crop, an 

 objection which merits the attention of every farmer, who 



wheat : hence, though the snail may not devour it about this time or in 

 winter, it dies away in the spring, or blights in summer. 



Another farmer remarks, tli.it he sometimes sows a few acres of wheat, 

 by preparing it with rag-fallow ; that is, by giving the ley two or three 

 furrows, and proper harrowings, to reduce the turf. However, if the 

 loss of winter pasture, extra work beyond what an oat-crop requires, and 

 the foul state the land is commonly left in, by this practice for fallow, is 

 put to the debtor side of the wheat account, perhaps this method of 

 growing wheat, does not prove more profitable than an oat crop. He has 

 tried, he adds, wheat after grass, but never found it answer with only 

 one furrow. 



Mr Wight of Ormiston is perfectly satisfied, that oats in place of 

 wheat, after grass three years old, or upon clover ley, is by far the most 

 sure, profitable, and advantageous crop to the farmer, independent of lea- 

 ving the land in much cleaner order ; and that wheat upon a rag-fallow 

 is a bad system, not equal to oats upon one furrow, and never fails to 

 leave the land very dirty, besides the extra labour required. 



In short, almost the whole evidence decidedly preves, that on all wet- 

 bottomed land?, oats after clover, is of greater value than a wheat crop, 

 and it is much more consistent with the rules of an improved system of 

 husbandry. At the same time, upon C,ry loams, wheat will succeed after 

 clover, if sown early, and repeatedly rolled, the openness of the soil, by 

 which the roots are apt to be thrown out, and the attacks of vermin, 

 being the great objections to this practice, which rolling will obviate. 



