ECONOMY OF FARMING. 123 



peated turning over of the soil, become enriched with atmospheric substances. Aa 

 to what concerns the first reason, it would be superfluous to deny it, as we are now 

 more accurately instructed than they formerly were, as to the efl'ect of the soil on 

 vegetation ; and as respects the second, the advantage is always double — one that, 

 by the frequent turning of the soil, the humus is brought into a more soluble state, 

 and then, that by frequent ploughing under, the weeds always springing up again, 

 increase the mass of the humus itself But we ought not here to overlook the fact, 

 that in the period that the soil is exposed to the air and brought into activity, no plants 

 occupy the field which can take it up, and that by the evaporation of the old humus 

 the advantage of its easier dissolution, and probably its increase itself, is lost. The 

 real advantage of this treatment always confines itself only to the clearing of a soil 

 greatly overrun with weeds, which is more rarely, or of a firm, cohesive, tight, and 

 hardened soil, which is most usually the case. 



How it happens that it is believed necessary to repeat the fallow for three years on 

 the same field, in other words, why the Triennial or Threefield system of hus- 

 bandry is every where the most usual on hard and lazy soil, must be sought for in 

 the disproportionate size of the farms, or what is the same, in the too small means of 

 aid to manage them, in the bi-eaking up of pasture-land, in the want of fodder, in the 

 prevalence of soccage, in the right of pasturage, and in the senseless imitation of 

 doing that which a father or a neighbor has done. It is nowhere absolutely neces- 

 sary, since it is in no case supposable that one cannot sufficiently prepare a clayey 

 soil, if also it is run to waste, by means of one deep ploughing in the autumn, and the 

 repeated employment of the cutting and shovel plough in favorable weather in the 

 spring, so as to obtain at least one summer-fruit. From the Danube at Vienna to 

 the Po fallows are unknown, and who will maintain that these extensive lands 

 prodvice less than those which lie between the Danube and the Baltic sea. The 

 chmate in Steirmark, Salzburg, Tyrol, Carinthia, and Carniola, is as different as the 

 soil of those different lands, and one finds there as many variations as in those lands 

 which practice fallow. The ground of the necessity of the fallow hes therefore not in 

 the climate, and not in the soil. But when we compare the circumstances of the 

 farms of countries which have no fallows, with those where the Threefield system of 

 husbandry is the most common, then the true ground and the correctness of our 

 above-mentioned opinion is evident. The inclosed and proportionately small farms, 

 the great stock of cattle, the extended culture of plants for fodder, and the great ex- 

 tent of meadow, make it possible there in fields unbroken either to raise grain or plants 

 for fodder, while as one must carry on large farms with small means of aid, the fallow, 

 as also in mellow, sandy soil is indispensably necessary. 



How the soil must be ploughed in the fallow year, depends on the proportion of 

 each ploughing to its object, and on the weather, which more or less flivors the cleans- 

 ing and pulverizing it. The object must be obtained, and the smaller the cost is with 

 which one reaches it, the greater the profit. If one starts up the fallow at its full 

 depth in autumn, he may in the following spring and summer very perfectly pulver- 

 ize the strongest clayey soil with two ploughings, and as frequent harrowing, and 

 following this with the extirpator or scarifier. Besides, one reckons, according to the 

 rule, that the soil must be ploughed up in Autumn, in Spring, in June, August, and 

 September, if the fallow is to be fully prepared. The manure should be brought on 

 the field, and buried under the ground in May and June, again in August, and again 

 buried in September; there is, therefore, time enough for it to evaporate itself use- 

 lessly, as respects the field, during the lapse of nearly a whole year ; and of all the 

 objections which are made to fallows, this waste of manure is one of the most impor- 

 tant, although the least considered. The summer deposit is frequently made in cross 

 lines with the hoe, which is certainly very suitable. But if one leave the fallow 

 field, as is much more commonly done, unbroken till June, in order to use it as a pas- 

 ture, and then first break up the soil, then in dry summers he would not always ^ 

 obtain his object in the fallow, even not to mention thot now the greater part of the 

 work on the field must be done in the time of the harvest. We generally notice that 

 a person wishes with a fallow to attain two contrary objects; he practises fallow to 

 purify the soil from weeds, and render it as finely divided as possible, and he does so 

 also to have pasture for his cattle. In most casrs he has no other field for fod- 

 der ; his cattle, especially sheep, feed on it till the cutting of the winter grain. Not 

 to leave his beasts to suff'er, one ploughs up his fallow late, leaves it between each 

 ploughing to grow green and harden again, and if he is not always in a state to attain 

 the object of the most perfect cleaning, loosening, and pulverizing the soil, yet he 

 beheves himself recompensed by the enriching of the soil ; then in such a case the 



