FALLOWING. 83 



is deprived of the advantage of having the vegetable 

 substance accumulating on the surface from time to 

 time mixed into the soil. It is a maxim of Mr. Peters, 

 President of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, To 

 lay down land and break it up often. Convertible hus- 

 bandry, or regulur alternations of tillage crops and pas- 

 tures and meadows, seem therefore, to be the only sys- 

 tem by which the fertility of the country can be pre- 

 served and improved- Whatever pains we take, what- 

 ever expenses we incur, in collecting instruments of 

 husbandry, in accumulating and applying manures, and 

 in tilling the earth ; all is to little purpose, unless to 

 these we superadd a succession of crops^ adapted to the 

 nature of the soil — to the laws of the climate^ and to the 

 physical character and commercial value of the article 

 raised. The practice of applying manure and cropping, 

 so as to draw out the strength of it, and that of the 

 soil, as soon as it can be done, until the land is rendered 

 quite barren and incapable of affording any more pro- 

 duce without some respite, is most miserable, and de- 

 serves the highest reprobation. 



Crops are generally divided into two kinds, viz. those 

 that exhaust and impoverish the soil on which they 

 grow ; and those that ameliorate and improve it. The 

 first are fibrous-rooted plants, as Indian corn, wheat, 

 barley, rye, oats, flax, &c. The second includes all the 

 leguminous and tap-rooted tribes, as beans, peas, tur- 

 nips, parsnips, carrots, clover, &c. Agricultural im- 

 provement depend in a great measure on the judicious 

 interchange of their different crops; in soils which are 

 well adapted to a variety of plants ; for under proper 

 management land may be constantly cropped, without 

 the intervention of a fallow, as was formerly the prac- 

 tice. It is easier and cheaper to keep land in heart, 

 than to restore it after it is worn out. Weeds will so 

 increase, especially in old farms, as almost to spoil a 

 crop, unless a hoed crop intervene to check them <nce 

 in two or three years. And a green hoed crop helps to 

 prepare land for producing other crops, by enriching it. 

 Wheat land, for instance, may be recruited, and cleared 

 of its weeds, by a crop of beans, or potatoes, as effec- 

 tually as by fallowing. 



