A TREATISE OK THE CONNECTION OF 



FALLOWING. 



IT has been frequently noticed in the preceding pages, 



that alkaline salts -act more powerfully on some kinds of 



peat and inert vegetable matters than on others, particularly 



on those which become oxygenated by being exposed to 



the aftion of air. ' This points out, that the practice of 



fallowing ground containing much vegetable matter, by 



repeatedly exposing fresh surfaces to the action of the 



.air, occasions the peat, or vegetable matter, to be more 



-easily dissolved, or acted upon by alkaline salts; but 



when no such application is made, the insolubility of the 



-vegetable matter is by fallowing increased, which, to 



certain grounds, may prove, instead of a benefit, a real 



injury* 



The putrefaction or .solution of vegetable substances 

 is more readily promoted by a close or stagnated state of 

 the air, than by a constant supply and addition of oxy- 

 gen or pure air, as happens to vegetable substances w r hen 

 subjected to .the operation of fallowing. 



Glover, 



