PLACE IN THE ROTATION. 33 



localities command. In the ordinary business of farming, 

 however, it is far safer in the long-run not to travel far 

 out of the usual rotation for the sake of an extra money 

 return now and then. As a speculation it may pay, but 

 at the same time it is equally liable to failure, and in 

 either case may cause more derangement in the farm 

 system than the chances of extra gain are worth. 



On the lighter class of soils farmed upon the four-course 

 or Norfolk system, potatoes might advantageously be sub- 

 stituted for turnips in the rotations, either wholly or in part, 

 according as the soil and climate were suitable. They 

 would form an equally good fallow crop for the cereals, 

 and would so far increase the interval of recurrence of the 

 turnip crop on the same ground. In districts where the 

 five, six, and seven course systems are followed the 

 Lothians, for instance potatoes are generally taken imme- 

 diately before wheat, for which they form an excellent pre- 

 parative the deep tillage and manure they have received, 

 and the opportunities they afford of keeping the land 

 clean during their growth, all telling most favourably 011 

 the succeeding grain crop, the straw of which is generally 

 stronger and brighter than when preceded by any other 

 crop. Its natural place in the rotation, as compared with 

 that of other fallow crops, places it more directly before 

 the winter-sown wheat than either of the other spring- 

 sown cereal crops. The potatoes are all off the field, and 

 the ground ready for ploughing by the middle or end of 

 October, while the other straw crops, not requiring to be 

 sown until the spring, give ample opportunity for the pre- 

 ceding root crop to be consumed on the field. 



The preparation of the soil for the potato crop should com- 

 mence as soon as the straw crop is cleared off the ground. 

 The operations of cleaning . (page 293, vol. i.) should be 

 carefully attended to, as one day's work now will save many 

 days' work and much injury to the crop in the spring and 



VOL. IT. 35 



