A SUMMARY OF PRACTICAL FARMING. 



Theory and practice, in agriculture as in every pursuit, 

 are two very different things. Scientific agricultural 

 theorists, condemn many common agricultural practices, 

 because they are unacquainted with the circumstances 

 which compel the performance of them. I do not mean, 

 in saying thus much, to deny that very many of the im- 

 provements in agriculture have been introduced by scientific 

 persons. Experiments in agriculture, on any large scale, 

 should be tried by those to whom it is of no material 

 consequence should they not succeed, and loss be sustained. 

 Experiments frequently have answered in particular 

 seasons, which, on trial afterwards in common seasons, 

 have failed. It is necessary, therefore, for those who farm 

 for a livelihood, to be very cautious in entering into 

 expensive experiments. I should recommend persons 

 beginning to farm, to copy the management of the reputed 

 best farmers in their neighbourhood ; for the same routine 

 of crops for the same description of land in one part of the 

 kingdom, may not be the most profitable for another part. 



Although there are numerous kinds of soils, all the 

 different varieties may be brought into two classes turnip 

 land, and wheat and bean land. In the first are sands, 

 sandy loams, gravel, flint, limestone, and chalk. The 

 second consists of the different kinds of clay soils. Fen 

 land may be deemed to form another class of soil. The 

 greatest part of the land that I have occupied has been 

 turnip land, and that chiefly sand and sandy loam. I beg 

 it therefore to be understood that the system of farming to 

 which my observations and recommendations will generally 

 be directed, is that which is calculated for those soils. 



I strongly recommend all those who enter into farming, 

 either for employment, amusement, or to reclaim land that 

 has been injured by a bad tenant, under no consideration 

 whatever to attempt the cultivation of a poor clay soil, 



