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IV. PREPARATION OF LAND FOR TILLAGE. 



I. FALLOWING. 



Fallowing in agriculture is the mode of preparing land, by 

 ploughing it a considerable time, before it is ploughed for seed. 

 Lands are laid fallow either during the summer, or during the 

 winter, according to the nature of the soil and the judgment of 

 the cultivator. 



By a fallow is understood a portion of land on which no seed 

 is sown for a given period usually a year. The object is the 

 exposure of the soil to the action of the atmosphere the de- 

 struction of noxious weeds, &c., by the frequent ploughings and 

 harrowings to which the field is subject. By many it is sup- 

 posed that the fertility of the soil is increased by this process, 

 and at an expense much less than could be accomplished by the 

 application of manures. 



The practice has existed from the earliest ages. The Ro- 

 mans with their agriculture introduced fallows in every part of 

 Europe, where it is generally in universal practice, with the 

 exception of Great Britain. But as a crop was lost every year 

 they occurred, a powerful aversion to naked fallows arose, 

 about the middle of the last century, in which some of the 

 ablest cultivators of the day entered the lists, and exhausted, 

 perhaps, all the legitimate arguments on both sides. ARTHUR 

 YOUNG laboured assiduously to substitute fallow crops for the 

 naked fallows then in general use. 



Yet the practice does not appear to have given way, but 

 rather to have extended on wet tenacious clays and it is on such 

 grounds only that any one now contends for the advantages of 

 fallowing. The expediency or inexpediency of pulverizing and 

 clearing the soil by a bare fallow, is a question that can be de- 

 termined only by experience, and not by argument. 



The principal advocates of fallowing at the present day, con- 

 tend for it only on heavy soils, which they say it is often im- 

 possible to keep free of weeds in wet climates and unfa- 

 vourable seasons. Under draining, where the soil is cold and 

 wet, is to be recommended, and the whole process of draining 

 and fallowing to be effectually done. By this means the suc- 

 ceeding crop will be ample, and the subsequent produce of 

 clover equally so. Yet their advice to the cultivator is Avoid 

 fallowing, if you can keep your land clear; but when you fal- 

 low, do it effectually, and improve the soil at the same time, 



