AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 39 



effects on the soil will last at least twenty years, even under a 

 succession of cropping, but in grass would be permanent." 



" The more siliceous soils, whether sandy or loamy, require less 

 chalk if any ; and as their texture is apt to be rather too open than 

 too close, lime is often much better adapted to them, if any manure 

 be at all needful, since an intake of soils of this kind generally 

 abounds with shelly fragments, enough to supply the requisite 

 quantity of calcareous matter. It may, however, be well worthy 

 of consideration, whether a supply of lime would not be advan- 

 tageous in setting to work that calcareous matter, and consoli- 

 dating the texture of the soil. The period of tillage should be 

 limited to such a space of time as may be sufficient, according to 

 the nature of the soil, to bring it into a fit state for the best grasses 

 to grow to perfection. This, on stiff clay lands, may be reckoned 

 as 1, oats ; 2, beans ; 3, wheat ; 4, beans ; 5, wheat ; 6, clean 

 fallow ; 7, oats ; and lay this crop down with grass seeds." 



" But on good silty loams a different mode and duration of 

 cropping may be adopted. Upon such lands, along the coasts 

 of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, the usual course of cropping is, 

 1, beans ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat ; and they get better wheat after the 

 oats than before, the straw being less bulky, and less liable to 

 'go down.' But even in the case of such soils, if the argillaceous 

 particles are in such abundance as to produce an unctuous 

 texture, or slipperiness under the feet, when rather wet they 

 may judiciously be subjected to the rotation prescribed for clays, 

 and treated similarly." 



" There must, however, be a very great difference of treatment 

 with regard to those slight, loose, sandy soils, of which some spots 

 of the intake level will be found to consist, when taken from 



