ON THE ROTATION OF CROPS. 77 



to think of introducing into their grounds the requisite changes. 

 Clover and sainfoin are placed amongst the vegetables that ought 

 to enter into the system of cropping, but these plants require 

 a deep and not too compact a soil, in order that their roots may 

 fix themselves firmly. Flax, hemp, and corn require a good 

 soil, and can be admitted as a crop only upon those lands that 

 are fertile and well prepared. 



Light and dry soils cannot bear the same kinds of crop as those 

 that are compact and moist. Each kind of soil, then, requires a 

 particular system of crops, and each farmer ought to establish 

 his own upon a perfect knowledge of the character and proper- 

 ties of the land he cultivates. As in each locality the soil pre- 

 sents shades of difference, more or less marked, according to 

 the exposure, composition, depth of the soil, &c.,the proprietor 

 ought so to vary his crops, as to give to each portion of the land 

 the plants for which it is best adapted; and thus establish a par- 

 ticular rotation of crops. 



An intelligent farmer, whose lands lie at a distance from a 

 market, will endeavour to avoid the expenses incident to the 

 transportation of his products; and in order to do this he will 

 give the preference to those harvests of fodder or of roots which 

 may be consumed upon the place by his dependents and his 

 animals. 



There is another circumstance which must be attended to in 

 sowing those lands which are light, or which lie upon a slope; 

 for these it is necessary to employ such vegetables as cover the 

 soil with their numerous leaves, and unite it in every direction 

 by their roots, thus preserving it from being washed away by 

 rains, and at the same time protecting it from being too much 

 dried by the burning rays of the sun. 



In order to support by example the truth of the principles 

 which I have here laid down, I will make a statement of the 

 series of crops that are found most advantageous in those coun- 

 tries where agriculture is the most flourishing. I shall com- 

 mence with the province of ancient Flanders, because there 

 the art of cultivating the soil to the greatest advantage had its 

 birth. In the departments of Lille and Douai, where the soil 

 is of the best kind, and the art of preparing and employing 

 manures is carried to the greatest perfection, the following 

 series of crops are adopted. 



FIRST SERIES. Flax or cabbage wheat beans oats with 

 trefoil trefoil wheat. 



SECOND SERIES. Turnips oats or barley with trefoil 

 trefoil wheat. 



THIRD SERIES. Potatoes wheat roots, such as the sugar 

 7* 



