ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 31 



implements have undergone a like improvement. 

 Besides, other new implements, which greatly econ- 

 omize the expense of tillage, are coming into use, as 

 the roller, cultivator, drill-barrow, &c. ; so that a 

 farm may now.be worked with half the expense of 

 labour that it was wont to be worked with forty years 

 ago, and better worked withal. Mind, likwise, where 

 it is put in requisition, and enlightened by science, 

 is doing ten times more in aid of agricultural labour 

 than it formerly did. 



If we revert to old, and, in most cases, to present 

 practices, we shall perceive that thorough tillage has 

 not been sufficiently attended to. Our implements 

 have been defective, and the manner of using them 

 often imperfect. Good ploughing is all-important to 

 good farming, and still there is no labour upon the 

 farm that has been more imperfectly performed than 

 this has generally been. Light soils seldom require 

 but a single ploughing for the seed, if well executed ; 

 but, if badly executed, two ploughings are too little. 

 Our implements are, however, daily improving, the 

 importance of good tillage is becoming more and 

 more apparent, and our practical knowledge is in- 

 creasing. 



IV. ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 



Alternation of crops is an essential requisite in 

 good farming, and forms a part of it wherever it is 

 considered to have arrived at any degree of perfec- 

 tion. It is this Avhich gave to Flemish husbandry a 

 pre-eminence over that of every other country, long 

 before the new system had obtained a fooling in 

 Great Britain. It is principally this which has con- 

 verted the county of Norfolk, and other districts in 

 England, from the poorest and least productive into 

 the most wealthy and populous portions of that coun- 

 try. It is this alternating system which has contrib- 

 uted, in a great measure, to the astonishing improve- 

 ments recently made in the agriculture of Scotland ; 



