386 On Rotations of Crops. 



than rape, comes rapidly on in the spring, is excellent food 

 for sheep, and may be stocked in the months of March and 

 April, when green food is scarce and valuable. This prac- 

 tice gives great relief to the pastures, and is the means of se- 

 curing, an abundance of grass, during the remainder of the 

 season ( a79 ). 



Questions connected with judicious Rotations. 



Before any general deductions are drawn from the pre- 

 ceding observations, it is proper to discuss the following 

 points : 1. After a fallow, on strong land, ought the succeed- 

 ing crop to be wheat or barley ? 2. After clover, are oats, 

 or wheat to be preferred ? and 3. What is the best system 

 for improving and preserving the fertility of weak soils ? 



1. In Essex, and the other southern counties of England, 

 barley, in general, is the usual crop after fallow ; and to ren- 

 der strong land better adapted for that plant, the fallow is fre- 

 quently ploughed eight times. It is remarked, that when fal- 

 lows are limed, the soil is so open, as frequently to throw out 

 the young wheat ; and that with barley, dung is often unne- 

 cessary, though in general required with wheat. The barley 

 also, might be sown on the winter furrow in spring, and would 

 be a productive and not a precarious crop. The crop of clo- 

 ver afterwards, would likewise be great, if not destroyed by 

 the weight of the barley crop, which is more apt to be 

 lodged than wheat. About thirty years ago, barley used to 

 be the first crop after fallow in Scotland. But the risk of 

 losing the clover crop, the greater profit derived from 

 wheat, and the difficulty that would be found, to raise a 

 sufficient quantity of that grain, for the demands of the Bri- 

 tish consumers, if wheat on fallows were universally given 

 up, is unfavourable to the barley system. Besides, if it is 

 necessary to plough the fallow eight times for barley, ac- 

 cording to the Essex system, and only six times for wheat, 

 that is a strong argument in favour of the latter practice (* 8 ). 



In strong soils indeed, which do not admit of a wheat crop 

 succeeding the clover, the best, and almost the only chance for 

 a crop of wheat, is after fallowing and manuring. By some 

 beans have been recommended, when they form a part of 

 the rotation, but even then it would be advisable, that bar- 

 ley should follow the beans, and wheat the fallow, because 

 beans are not always harvested in time to secure a good 

 season to cultivate land for wheat ; but a season can always 

 be had for barley, upon the land that has lain ploughed up 



