116 OUR FARM CROPS. 



order, too, tells its tale of injuries sustained by the 

 attacks of insects and plant diseases, which though noticed 

 probably to only a small extent in the first, may, with 

 the powers of increase so remarkable in them, become 

 enormously developed in the second. Where barley 

 follows wheat, the seeds, generally containing grasses 

 again the same order invariably suffer; and we all know 

 the value of a good crop of seeds everywhere where mixed 

 husbandry is carried out. 



Again, in some rotations, barley is taken after a legu- 

 minous seed crop beans, or peas, or vetches. These, 

 especially the two last, generally leave the land in a 

 very foul and dirty condition a state very ill suited 

 for barley with which seeds are to be sown down. For 

 these to succeed and give their full return, the land 

 cannot be too scrupulously clean. Besides which, the 

 beans or peas require from the soil the same food as 

 the crop of clover looks for, and are afflicted by the same 

 diseases and injuries which so often diminish our seeds. 

 As a rule, we should always bear in mind that the longer 

 the interval between the same crops, or crops of the same 

 natural order, on the same ground, the better, and the 

 greater the chance of remunerative cultivation. Expedi- 

 ence has long ago pointed this out to the observant farmer, 

 and science has now proved it, by showing him the cause 

 of it. 



Let barley always follow a root crop. Under the 

 ordinary circumstances of our farms, turnips probably, if 

 fed off by sheep, are the best preparation from the crop. 

 If the land, however, is in high condition, the barley is 

 apt to grow too luxuriantly, and to be laid. This draw- 

 back may be met, either by carting the turnips off (either 

 wholly or a portion of them), instead of feeding them on 

 the land, or by substituting another root crop altogether, 

 as potatoes or mangold wurzel, either of which provide 



