18 OUR FARM CROPS. 



experience has shown to be so desirable for wheat. On 

 such soils, too, the roller, either plain or ribbed, is a good 

 friend to the farmer : it closes the surface, stops evapora- 

 tion, and consolidates the body of the soil generally. 



On strong lands again, root-crops are certainly the best 

 preparation for wheat, provided the land can be cleared 

 in time to allow for wheat sowing. In the north and 

 other districts, where the five or six-course system is 

 carried out, either turnips, or potatoes, or mangold precede 

 the wheat. All form good fallowing crops, allowing the land 

 to be well cleared, requiring for themselves mineral ingre- 

 dients different in proportions from the wheat, and at the 

 same time leaving on the land a supply of organic matter 

 for its use. 



On very heavy soils root crops are rarely attempted, 

 owing to the difficulty in obtaining a sufficiently fine 

 tilth for the seed-bed, and also to the difficulty in getting 

 them off the land before the bad weather sets in. On 

 such soils beans are sown alternately with wheat. This 

 rotation, though suitable as regards the chemistry of the 

 two crops, has one great fault, that of preventing to a 

 great extent that mechanical treatment of the soil, which 

 we know adds so much to its fertility. The bean stubble 

 is ploughed in with its accumulated weeds; the wheat- 

 sown, and generally, on such soils, left unhoed until har- 

 vest ; the ploughs are sent in again as soon after the field 

 is cleared as. possible; manure either ploughed in now or 

 before seed-time in the spring, and the land is left for the 

 winter fallow. In the spring the first chance of getting 

 the beans sown should not be lost; and the only oppor- 

 tunity of getting the land clean is during the early period 

 of their growth; and then the chances of weather on strong 

 clay soils are considerably against you, and the weeds 

 remain masters of the field, until a twelvemonth's fallow 

 and a large expenditure in labour again clears your land 



