122 ECONOMY OF FARMING. 



fruit to the sowing-time of another often in quite a limited space of time, whilst with 

 the fallow he might employ the space of a w^hole sunuiier to prepare the third part of 

 the field for sowing the winter-crop ; and the ploughing and carrying out the manure 

 may be attended to at a time when the labor of a crop presses. That one needs 

 less manure when he practices on the fallow system is very natural, because only f 

 of the field bears fruit ; for a like production therefore he needs ^ less manure. But 

 afterwards one harvests so much the less for it, since the greater product of the 

 winter-fruit gathered makes not up fhe deficiency of a third part of the field, which 

 gives at the best but a sparse pasture. 



We have already treated of this subject in the first volume, p. 242, and here refer 

 to what we there said. Great farms usually need fallows because they have neither 

 teams nor manure sufficient for the extent of the field ; and where the farms are mari- 

 aged on the soccage-principle (FrOhne) there the fallow is indispensable, if the cli- 

 mate favors not the mode of farming by the system of the natural grass-pastures 

 (Egarten-wirthschaft). We see, therelbre. in all the North of Germany, in a great 

 part of England, and of Hungary, &c., fallow practised. But where the farms are 

 small and the burden of the pasturage rests not on the fields, there fallows are almost 

 wholly unknown, or they gradually disappear ; as for example, in the Netherlands, in 

 Switzerland, in Alsace, in Tyrol, Steirmark, Carinthia. and in Italy. A clear proof 

 that great estates are hinderances to the welfare of a nation in two ways : because 

 they produce less and hinder a great part of the population from becoming proprie- 

 tors and lessees. 



Thaer, in the first volume of his Rationellen Landwirthsch , has stated very well 

 the reasons for and against fallows; in the first No. also, of the Transactions of the 

 Agricultural Society of Vienna, may be found admirable remarks on this subject. 



The advocates of fallows are acquainted usually with only the land-husbandry of 

 their own country and the circumstances there ; and because there fallow is prac- 

 tised, and after fallow fine winter-grain is harvested, and those who plant their fallow 

 in part with summer-fruits have poor winter-grain, and this and that person who 

 have solely employed their fallows for cultivation must return again to the fallow 

 system, they therelbre conclude that one can hardly raise grain to advantage with- 

 out faUows. But they overlook the fact that, on the other side of the mountains they 

 have no fallows, and yet raise as fine and more grain than here at home : that those 

 who have planted their fallows in part with summer-fruits, without taking care to use 

 more manure, must necessarily only weaken the field ; and that it is from imprudence 

 and laying up too small means of aid, that this and that person must give up again a 

 mode of farming which they do not understand, and in which they were in no wise 

 brought up. 



[The remarks to which our Author refers as found in Vol. I. p. 242, &c.; respecting 

 fallows, are these: "When a person ploughs and harrows a field in the course of the 

 year many times, 3 to 6 times, merely for the purpose of preparing it for the sowing 

 in autumn, this is called to fallow the field, the field itself is the falloir. 



"As the fallow is the most costly preparation of the soil, w^hich is used while it is 

 ploughed, from 3 to 6 times, and besides, the interest of two years and the loss of a 

 harvest, as well as the useless dissipation of the manure during this time, which is very 

 much aided by frequent turning of the soil, must be counted as a charge ; hence it is 

 clear that only in the most pressing circumstances should one resort to this mode of 

 preparing his field. 



"In easy and mellow soil one always has time enough, between the harvest of the 

 preceding and the sowing of the after-fruit, to pulverize and clean the soil sufficient- 

 ly, by the plough, harrow, and extirpator; the culture of the hoed fruit affords also an 

 effectual means of aid to reach this object; but in a tight, hard, clayey soil, one is 

 often hindered from ploughing the field in the usual time of the year, and if not to be 

 sown in the most uncleared state, yet nothing else remains than to plough it again 

 later, whereby many times the period of the summer sowing is lost. 



"From this it is clear that the fallow is only accidental, not necessary in itself for 

 the preparation of the soil. 



"AUhough it is certain that the real ground on account of wliich men have adopted 

 fallows, lies only in the nature of a light soil not reduced except by much work ; yet 

 it appears in the lapse of time to have been forgotten, and because the fallow was 

 every where introduced into Europe from many causes, therefore the chief ground 

 becam.e a secondary ground, and other grounds vrcre relied on to prove the necessity 

 and use of the same. 

 "The fallow^ would, by a rest of an entire year, gain in power and by the oft-re 



