ON ROTATION OF CROPS. 179 



this end unattainable, yet, by keeping it in view, you will 

 the more nearly approximate to it. 



When once "the land is laid out to feed the number of 

 cattle required for the work of a farm, and to produce the 

 manure necessary for the soil, no change can take place 

 without disadvantage. If you augment the produce of 

 grain, it must be at the expense of the leguminous crops : 

 the cattle will suffer for want of forage, and the soil from 

 deficiency of manure. 



Emily. And even the corn of the following year will 

 degenerate for want of that preparation of the soil produc- 

 ed by leguminous crops. 



Mrs. B. The Belgians, whom we consider as among 

 the best farmers, lay out their lands so as to obtain, as far 

 as possible, equal results annually. They derive their 

 profit from the sale of their corn : this alone goes to mar- 

 ket, the forage being all consumed by the farming cattle, 

 and the manure employed on the soil. A Belgic farm 

 consists of generally from thirty to forty acres : the succes- 

 sion of crops is strictly regular, and comprehends a period 

 extending from ten to fifteen years. 



In rural economy an intervening crop is occasionally 

 raised between two regular crops ; thus, buck-wheat is 

 often sown in that country as soon as the land can be 

 ploughed after wheat, and is gathered in late in the au- 

 tumn ; but a double crop of grain is very exhausting to 

 the soil, and it would be better that these stolen interme- 

 diate crops should be of leguminous plants. In England 

 we do not attempt them : our corn is got in too late to 

 admit of sowing for a second produce the same season. 



Emily. What a prodigious advantage a rotation of 

 crops has over fallows ! If leguminous crops do not 

 yield any profit, they defray at least all the expenses of 

 their cultivation, and prepare the soil for a rich harvest of 

 grain ; whilst a fallow affords no crop whatever to repay 

 the expense of ploughing and manuring, and does not so 

 well prepare the soil for grain. 



Mrs. B. The greater the variety of crops raised in a 

 country, the more we consider that country as advanced 



983. What is said of the number of cattle when the land is laid out 

 to feed 1 984. And of the Belgian farmers 1 985. How large are 

 their farms'? 986. What are intervening crops'? 987. What is 

 their effect on the soiH 988. What connection is there between vari- 

 ety of crops and knowledge of agriculture 1 ? 



