CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. J53 



and harrowing fine in the spring but it most commonly succeeds a crop of 

 potatoes which receive the manure. In Flanders, hemp was formerly more 

 used as a preparation for flax, than since the introduction of potatoes. In Italy 

 it commonly precedes flax, and although the land gets no tillage, as the hemp 

 is well manured, it grows strong, and is then a powerful destroyer of weeds. In 

 England, on some of the fen soils of Lincolnshire, &c., the usual course is hemp 

 two or three years in succession, well manured, then flax without manure a crop 

 of turnips is often taken the same season after the flax, and hemp succeeds again. 

 In Russia it is stated that extensive crops of flax are drawn from new cleared 

 lands, after burning them over, and harrowing in the seed with the ashes. The 

 best preparatory crops in this country, at present, appear to be potatoes, corn 

 and roots; they will most generally repay the extra manure, aud if well ma- 

 naged, check the production of weeds. 



The following rotations may serve as an outline, subject to be varied, and 

 hemp or other crops introduced, as circumstances may require, viz. 



No. I. Low, cold, or reclaimed soils. 

 1st year. Potatoes. 

 2d do. Flax with seeds. 



3d do. Herds grass, (timothy,) and red lop, or tall 

 meadow oat grass, to continue three years or more, and the course repeated. 



No. II. Strong uplands. 



1st year. Potatoes or corn. 



2d do. Corn or roots. 



3d do. Flax with seeds. 



4th do. Clover. 



5th do. Orchard grass or timothy, to continue three 

 years or more. 



No. HI. Light lands. 



1st year. Potatoes or corn. 



2d do. Corn or roots. 



3d do. Flax with clover seed. 



4th do. Clover to be mown once, the after growth to be 

 turned in, and rye sown thick on the furrow, which may be soiled or fed in the 

 spring by sheep or milch cows, and ploughed in for 



5th year. Corn. 



6th "do. Spring wheat or barley. 



7lh do. Clover, and the course to be pursued as before, 

 when flax will occupy the ground every seventh year. In all cases, except 

 when hemp is substituted, the tillage crops should receive the dung. 



If the land is ploughed into beds, or convex ridges, like turnpike roads, about 

 a rod wide, especially if low and level, the crop will be much more secure from 

 injury by heavy rains, and the grass crops will be better if it remains in that 

 form. On any soils, fall ploughing in narrow ridges will facilitate its early 

 working in the spring, ana should not be dispensed with. 



Weeding is considered in Europe, and by good husbandmen in this country, 

 as necessary to secure a good crop of flax, which is a very tender plant when 

 young, and more easily checked in its progress by weeds than any other. It is 

 not supposed to be inju red by the clover and grass sown with it; on the contrary, 

 the Flemish farmers think them beneficial, by protecting the tender roots from 

 drought, and keeping the weeds under. It should be carefully wed when the 

 plants are three or four inches high; they are not then injured by the labourer 

 going barefooted over them. 



Choice of seed. That of the last year's growth should be obtained if possible. 

 The usual marks of good seed are, that it be plump, oily and heavy, of a bright 

 brown colour, sinking readily in water, and when thrown into the fire to crackle 

 and blaze quick. A very simple method of trial is to sprinkle it thin between 

 two pieces of wet paper, which plunge in a hotbed or dunghill, and in less than 

 twenty-four hours the proportion that will vegetate can be discerned, which 

 should be ascertained in order to regulate the 



Quantity to be sown. On this head no particular directions can be given, as 



