60 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



The question seems simple enough : yet after all is 

 done, whether by Landlord or Tenant, or by both in 

 one, there is yet one more question to be asked before 

 the answer can be prudently ventured. I do not mean 

 the question whether there is a long Lease : that in- 

 deed must speak for itself: it is a question if possible 

 more important than even that. It is a practical 

 question ; let us give it a practical elucidation. 



It is one of the most expressive and meaning fea- 

 tures, rather than a deformity, of agriculture, that it 

 is full of exceptions and variations, and of what men 

 call Disappointments. However good in their way 

 broad principles, and laid-down courses of cropping 

 or of treatment may be, experience soon teaches us 

 that not only each soil, but to a certain extent each 

 field, has its own independent character and claim 

 upon the judgment, which will not be wisely sub- 

 mitted to the Procrustean law of this or that succes- 

 sion of crops. Skilful management is at least re- 

 quired to coax a farm into the designed and fore-de- 

 termined Rotation of four-course or six-course, or 

 any other course of husbandry ; and to this end it is 

 generally useful, and sometimes amusing, to inquire 

 into the local reputation which almost every field will 

 be found, on inquiry, to have established for itself. 



