256 On Summer Fallowing. 



lowing on strong soils has yet, however, still many advo- 

 cates, though all those lands which have been fallowed and 

 cropped alternate!}', have progressively become less fer- 

 tile ( 357 ); while those on which green crops have been sub- 

 stituted, have not been in the least deteriorated ( 358 ^. 



The arguments both for, and against summer fallow, are 

 thus briefly stated, in reference to the circumstances of the 

 three united kingdoms. Difference of climate, may render 

 different systems, in this respect, advisable ( 359 ). Nothing, 

 however, but a personal inspection of the crops grown in 

 Berwickshire and the Lothians, can give an adequate idea 

 of the perfection to which the fallow system is brought in 

 those districts; of the immense crops produced after it; 

 or of the advantages which are derived from a well-con- 

 ducted fallow, by the subsequent crops in the rotation. In 

 the culture of wet tenacious clays, therefore, the fallow pro- 

 cess has been called, by an eminent farmer, (George Rennie, 

 Esq. of Phantassie), " The main spring of Scottish hus- 

 " bandry ;" and it appears from the evidence of an able and 

 intelligent judge in those matters, (the late J. C. Curwen, 

 Esq. M. P.) who had frequently examined the husbandry of 

 the Lothians, " That clay soils, subject to this process, will 

 " produce the greatest crops, and yield the highest rents, 

 " of perhaps any in the united kingdom ( 3<5 )." 



SECT. VII. On Weeding Land. 



PREVENTING the soil from being injured by weeds, is at- 

 tended with much greater difficulties than are commonly ima- 

 gined. It is not only important to free the cultivated soil, 

 by every means that can possibly be devised, from those de- 

 structive intruders, and to prevent their growth, in grass 

 lands, in plantations, and in commons, but also on the sides 

 of roads, in hedges, or wherever they are to be found. 



It is the more necessary to attend carefully to this subject, 

 as the powers of propagation, which have been imparted by 

 nature in this description of plants, render it extremely dif- 

 ficult for farmers to prevent their growth. Many of them 

 are propagated both by their roots and their seeds. Some 

 plants extend their roots so far under ground, that it be- 

 comes extremely difficult to dig them up. In some instances, 

 new plants spring up from every joint left under ground. 

 Others stretch out runners or stolons every way above 

 ground, and to a considerable distance, while many plants 



