PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT OF SOILS. 43 



wheat. The foundation of this course of cropping is laid 

 by ploughing and subsoiling, to a depth of fourteen inches, 

 the ' ley wheat erishes,' doing this as soon after harvest as 

 possible, and has sometimes been done as early as August. 

 The rough surface and weeds are exposed to the sun- 

 shine of September, sometimes, as above stated, of August, 

 which opens up fissures into which the rain of winter de- 

 scends, passing through and between the clods, and when 

 frost conies, helps the work of disintegration wonderfully. 

 The influence upon the clods in this way is very different 

 from that obtained by the usual fallow with its hard sur- 

 face, upon which the rain beats and the frosts act only 

 superficially. In February or earlier, dry weather should 

 be chosen to ' change sides ' with the fallow and expose the 

 under portion to a similar process. This helps to evapor- 

 ate cold winter water, and to raise the temperature of the 

 soil. Mr. Pratt draws attention here to another and ' ap- 

 parently incomprehensible, but nevertheless, perfectly sound 

 advantage ' obtained by the drying of the soil, for the drier 

 the clods are made in winter and in early spring, the bet- 

 ter they retain the moisture in the dry summer months. 

 March winds and the subsequent frosts operate again upon 

 these reproduced clods, produced by changing sides with 

 the fallow as before stated, and bring them into a fine tilth 

 in remarkable contrast to the hard tough shining furrow 

 of ' brick earth exhibited, where the ploughing and fallow- 

 ing have been deferred, as is usually, or often the case, till 

 spring.' The labour of preparation for the mangold-seed 

 is trifling, comparatively, and the horse-hoe finishes the 

 work of the summer fallow. Since Mr. Pratt has adopted 

 this system, he has effected a large saving, in the spring, 

 of horse labour, and the work of clod-crushers and rollers 

 is in a great measure superseded by the work of natural in- 

 fluences.* The few remaining clods left here and there, 



* See Mr. Stephens' work, " Tester Deep Land Culture " Black- 

 wood & Sons for a most suggestive chapter on the influence of the 

 atmosphere in reducing clods to a fine tilth, and also for a very re- 

 markable prophecy or suggestion that, by the extension of deep cul- 



