NAKED FALLOWS. 173 



guinea an acre rent, [a tenth of his produce in tithes, a 

 heavy poor-rate, and an enormous tax.] The difficuhy is 

 solved if we examine the above statement, since the dif- 

 ference between fallowing and establishing a rotation of 

 crops amounts to more than the difference of our rents and 

 theirs. I know there are some stiff soils on which it 

 would be difficult to establish the rotation I mention, but 

 this should be no argument against it where the soil will 

 admit of it, particularly as clover and vetches may be in- 

 troduced with a certainty of success, even if the ground 

 should be naturally poor, by the addition only of gypsum, 

 which will indeed add a few cents a year to the acreable 

 expense, but it will, in all probabihty, at the same time 

 add nearly a ton to the produce. 



" I would not be considered as confining my observa- 

 tion to vetches, which have not yet been sufficiently tried 

 in this country ; potatoes or carrots, or peas sown thin, 

 and cut green for provender, may all answer the purpose, 

 but, above all, clover. If this last is the only crop to be 

 brought into the rotation, the system must be changed to 

 the following course : 1st, corn ; 2d, barley and clover ; 

 3d and 4th, clover ; 5th, wheat and one ploughing. By 

 this means a crop of clover will be substituted for a 

 fallow." 



Thus far Chancellor Livingston. We w^ould add this 

 suggestion, that as the culture of turnips and beets is now 

 successfully progressing among us, and as the winter- 

 wheat crop is becoming so precarious as to render a re- 

 sort to the spring varieties of that grain probable, the 

 following course would be better adapted to our husband- 

 ry than the one recommended above : first year, corn or 

 potatoes, upon a clover ley, with long or unfermented 

 manure ; second year, spring wheat with clover-seeds ; 

 third year, clover cut in June, and fallowed with turnips ; 

 fourth year, barley or oats with grass-seeds ; fifth year, 

 meadow ; sixth year, pasture. In this way seven crops 

 would be obtained in six years ; three of them would be 

 decidedly ameliorating, and but two particularly exhaust- 

 ing ; and in five of the seven years the field would afford 

 pasture in autumn. This course is particularly recom- 

 15* 



