912 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. PJIrt III i 



of lime, where it can be obtained, is of the greatest service in enabling such soils to bring corn to its full 

 perfection. In the fens of Thorney, the following course was recommended : 1. Paring and burning 

 for rape ; 2. oats ; and 3. wheat with grass-seeds ; if the land were safe from water, the Lammas sort, if 

 not, spring wheat. This short course, it is contended, preserves the land in heart; and it afterwards 

 produces abundant crops of grass. But long courses, in such a soil, run the lands to weeds and straw, 

 without quality in the grain. 



5871. Loam. The courses of crops applicable to this soil are too numerous to be here inserted. If the 

 sward is friable, the following rotation may be adopted : 1. Oats ; 2. turnips ; 3. wheat or barley ; 

 4. beans ; 5. wheat ; 6. fallow or turnips ; 7. wheat or barley, and grass-seeds. If the sward is very tough 

 and coarse, instead of taking oats, it may lie pared and burnt for turnips. 



5872. Sand. On rich and deep sandy soils, the most valuable that can be raised is a crop of carrots. For 

 inferior sands, turnips, to be eaten on the ground ; which should then be laid down with barley and grass- 

 seeds. 



5873. According to the improved system of laying down lands to grass, land ought to be 

 previously made as clean and fertile as possible. With that view, all the green crops raised 

 ought to be consumed upon the ground ; fallow or fallow crops ought not to be neglected ; 

 and the whole straw of the corn crops should be converted into manure, and applied to 

 the soil that produced it. Above all, the mixing of calcareous matter with the soil, 

 either previously to, or during the course of, cropping, is essential. Nothing generally 

 improves meadows or pastures more than lime or marl : they sweeten the herbage, render 

 it more palatable to stock, and give it more nourishing properties. 



5874. When turnips are raised upon light land, sheep should be folded on them ; whereas, if the land is 

 strong or wet, the crop should be drawn, and fed in some adjoining grass-field, or in sheds. If the land 

 is in high condition, it is customary to cart off half the turnips, and eat the other on the ground. But 

 tills is not a plan to be recommended on poor soils. 



587.% // has been disputed whether grass-seeds should be sown with or tvithout com. In favour of the first 

 practice, that of uniting the two crops, it is maintained, that where equal pains are taken, the future crop 

 of grass will succeed as well as if they had been sown separately, while the same tilth answers for both. 

 On the other hand, it is observed, that as the land must, in that case, be put into the best possible order, 

 there is a risk that the corn-crop will grow so luxuriantly as to overpower the grass-seeds, and, at any rate, 

 will exclude them from the benefit of the air and the dews. If the season also be wet, a corn crop is apt 

 to lodge, and the grass will, in a great measure, be destroyed. On soils moderately fertile, the grasses 

 have a better chance of succeeding ; but then, it is said, that the land is so much exhausted by producing 

 the corn-crops, that it seldom proves good grass land afterwards. In answer to these objections, it has 

 been urged, that where, from the richness of the soil, there is any risk of sowing a full crop of corn, less 

 seed is used, even as low as one third of the usual quantity ; and that a moderate crop of grain nurses the 

 young plants of grass, and protects them from the rays of a hot sun, without producing any material 

 injury. Where the two crops are united, barley is the preferable grain, except on peat. Barley has a 

 tendency to loosen the texture of the ground in which it grows, which is favourable to the vegetation of 

 grass-seeds. In the choice of barley, that sort should be preferred which runs least to straw, and which is 

 the soonest ripe. On peat, a crop of oats is to be preferred. The most recent practice of the best farmers 

 is in favour of sowing the grass-seeds without the addition of corn, or any other temporary plant. 



5876. The manner of sowing the grass-seeds also requires to be particularly attended to. Machines 

 have been invented for that purpose, which answer well, but they are unfortunately too expensive for 

 the generality of farmers. It is a bad system, to mix seeds of difFerent plants before sowing them, 

 in order to have the fewer casts. It is better, to sow each sort separately ; for the expense of going several 

 times over the ground is nothing, compared to the benefit of having each sort equally distributed. The 

 seeds of grasses being so light, ought never to be sown in a windy day, except by machinery, an equal 

 delivery being a point of great consequence. Wet weather ought likewise to be avoided, as the least 

 degree of poaching is injurious. Grass seeds ought to be well harrowed, according to the nature of the 

 soil. 



5877. When the corn is carried off, the young crop of grass should be but little fed during autumn, and 

 that only in dry weather; but heavily rolled in the following spring, in order to press the soil home to the 

 roots. It is then to be treated as permanent pasture. By attention to these particulars, the far greater 

 proportion of the meadows and pastures in the kingdom, of an inferior, or even medium quality, may be 

 broken up, not only with safety, but with great profit to all concerned. 



-"*"^^^*^'' Chap. VIII. ; 



,,.,,.,(! J ,JP/(j;n<s cultivated on a limited Scaiejor various Arts and Mamifactur^f,,] ,,;^fi.-^,(i 



5878. The plants used as food for men and animals are by far the most generally; 

 cultivated in every country ; and, next, those (f clothing, btiilding, and other arts of conve- " 

 nience or luxury. The former are often called agricultural, and the latter commercial 

 or manufactorial plants. Of manufactorial plants, only a few are at present cultivated 

 in Britain; the national policy rendering it preferable to import them, or substi- 

 tutes, from other countries. Some, however, are still grown in nearly sufficient quan- 

 tities for home consumption, as the hop, mustard, rape, and a considerable quantity of 

 flax, anise, and carraway ; some hemp, teazle, and woad are also raised. These and 

 other plants may be classed as ,|^.qw;ij ^fi^j^ the qlothing,, di^^lling,, brewing, pil-pa^i^ 

 and domestic and medical art^;^ :,,^)mL Tl^idb^ooon)^ W J9d '^rii baaio^,.^ 



Sect. I. Plants grown chiefyfor the Clothing Arts,, i.,-ii u rWuvu /u 

 ' 5879. The clothing plants are flax, hemp, teazle, madder, woad, anii'Swold^ tM^ISrst 

 tliife^ tire used by the iftanufacttirer of tlie Mi>ric^ttnt Jtlw'bthei^'ijy the 'dyei(.'n9*"i ei biwe 



