HISTORICAL AND GENERAL SURVEY. 6 



many of their observations relate to rural economy — their 

 deductions are amazingly accurate and inaccurate. They 

 attributed a great many diseases and disasters to the influence 

 of certain stars and phases of the moon. It is natural that 

 they should have done so, since, knowing no science, they 

 attributed the inexplicable to the malevolent action of things 

 over which they ha.d no control. 



On the other hand, the benefits to be derived from land 

 drainage, seed selection, the use of barnyard manure and lime, 

 and the residual elfect of legumes on the soil were recognised 

 by these writers in no uncertain manner. 



As previously stated, practice in field husbandry has 

 developed along very similar lines all the world over. In 

 most cases the primary stages were characterised by the small 

 variety of crops grown ; the first and most important crop 

 almost invariably being one of the cereals ; the same crop 

 was grown continuously on the same land, with the inevitable 

 result that the productivity declined steadily. Finally, the 

 land was abandoned, and virgin land cultivated in its stead. 

 " This custom of abandoning partly worn out land has been 

 almost universal in the history of all nations and their 

 agriculture." 



The Early Use of the Bare Fallow." — " Along with 

 such agricultural experience as taught man that cultivated 

 lands continuously growing cereals soon lost their producing 

 power came the knowledge that idle lands had to recuperate 

 their power to yield good crops. The experience of the farmers 

 of many nations, in many climates, showed that idle, aban- 

 doned land would regain productivity. In man's early dis- 

 covery of this principle we find the origin of the practice of 

 ' bare fallowing.' As land became scarcer, and as 

 agriculture increased in importance, the bare fallow became a 

 systematic feature of agriculture. Instead of working land to 

 a. condition of unproductivity and then abandoning it to 

 nature, the farmer cropped the land continuously, with regular 

 fallow periods every second or third year. 



" Modern agricultural science reveals the fact that, while 

 the 'bare fallow acts as a temporary stimulus to soil produc- 

 tivity, it is a practice that serves to hasten the ultimate im- 

 poverishment of a soil area. It is now used less often, and 

 then only to destroy weeds and, in some regions, to conserve 

 moisture." To-day the green-manure fallow has taken its 

 place among progressive farmers. 



2 " Field Management and Crop Rotation." — Parker. 



