70 PREPARATION OF LAND FOR TILLAGE. 



by the application of lime, marl, &c., as circumstances may 

 enable you to do. In dry weather, spare neither the plough 

 nor harrow. The stitches must, before winter, be laid high 

 and dry, and the water furrows made fair by the spade or some 

 suitable implement. By this process it is asserted that the 

 stiffest land may be brought into a state of high cultivation. 



It should be remembered that the climate of Great Britain is 

 essentially different from that of every part of this country; 

 our summers are much warmer, and our atmosphere much 

 drier. Nor do the cold and stiff soils, which compose three- 

 fourths of that island, abound extensively in the United States; 

 though mostly, where prevalent, in the northern part.* 



On the whole, it may be set down as a general rule, that 

 summer fallowings are not necessary in this country certainly 

 not on any smooth, level and dry soil; and in no case where 

 a suitable rotation of crops can be followed. 



Fallowing was necessary as long as grains only, all of which 

 exhaust the soil, were cultivated; during the intervals of tilling 

 the fields, a variety of herbs grew in them, which afford food 

 for animals, and the roots of which, when buried in the soil by 

 the plough, furnished a great part of the necessary manure. 

 But at this day, when we have succeeded in establishing the 

 cultivation of a great variety of roots and artificial grasses, the 

 system of naked fallowing can be no longer supported by the 

 shadow of a good reason. 



The scarcity of dung occasioned by the limited number of 

 cattle that could formerly be maintained upon a farm, caused 

 the custom of fallowing to be continued; but the ease with 

 which fodder may now be cultivated, furnishes the means of 

 supporting an increased number of animals those in their turn 

 supply manure and labour and the farmer is no longer under 

 the necessity of allowing his lands to lie fallow. 



Artificial grass lands ought now to be considered as forming 

 the basis of good agriculture. These furnish fodder, the fod- 

 der supports cattle, and the cattle furnish manure, labour, and 

 all the means necessary to a thorough system of cultivation. 



The suppression of the practice of fallowing, is then equally 

 serviceable to the cultivator, who increases his productions 

 without proportionally increasing his expenses; and to society, 

 which derives from the same extent of soil, a much greater 

 quantity of food, and additional resources for supply. 



* Our American farms are from ten to fifteen degrees south of the farms of 

 England, yet so keen are our frosts, and so sudden and frequent are the changes 

 from, thaw to frost, that common turnips do not stand the winter in our fields. 

 The climate and the soil of America may be believed to differ greatly from 

 those of England. Bordley's Husbandry. 



