THE WHEAT CEOP. 17 



In all descriptions of soils it is essential that they should 

 not retain more moisture than is natural to their compo- 

 sition that all the surplus should be got rid of by drainage, 

 as owing to the habit of the growth of wheat under suitable 

 conditions, it requires less moisture after it has once sent 

 out its roots than most of our other crops. 



The preparation of the land for wheat depends very 

 much upon the character of the soil and the general prac- 

 tice of the district.. In some of the unmodified clay 

 districts, especially if undrained, of the London clay for- 

 mation, as in Essex of the Wealden in Kent and Sussex 

 of the Oolite clays in Oxford and of the Lias in Gloucester 

 and Worcester, it is still the practice to give it a summer 

 fallow, keeping it well stirred and cleaned, and sowing it 

 down early in the autumn. This expensive and unphilo- 

 sophical practice is, however, gradually disappearing as 

 thorough-draining makes its way into the districts, and as 

 the farmers recognize the immense advantages which the 

 rapid development and adaptation of mechanical power, 

 in the shape of farm machines and implements, now place 

 at their disposal. Except under very rare circumstances, 

 we should not admit the practice of an open fallow as a 

 necessary preparation for wheat ; but we should endeavour 

 to occupy the ground profitably, by a crop which would take 

 from the soil such ingredients as the wheat will not require, 

 and which would leave in the soil behind it sufficient 

 organic matter to satisfy the demands of the succeeding 

 crop. This may be readily secured to the soil by growing 

 a green crop, either a regular fallow crop of roots, as 

 turnips, potatoes, &c., or a forage crop, as clover, such crop 

 being determined either by the particular character of the 

 soil or by the practice of the district. If the soil be of a 

 light friable character, the Norfolk, or four-course system 

 (wheat after clover), is generally followed, the spreading 

 roots of the clover giving that firmness to the soil which 



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