FALLOW CROPS AND NAKED FALLOWS. ^65 



river water in the spring. **This is found to be of such ad- 

 vantage, that supposing a meadow, not so treated, to yield 

 1,000 lbs of hay, then from one thus ivatered, 4,500 lbs are 

 produced," an increase of more than 400 per cent. 



The practice of inundating meadows during the winter, is 

 recommended both by Chaptal and Davy. The latter found 

 that when the thermometer stood at 29° F. above the ice, it 

 was 43° below it ; hence, the roots of grasses are kept from 

 fi"eezing, and the whole plant remains in a green and vigor- 

 ous state during the cold season. This practice, in this coun- 

 try, is too much confined to peat meadows, where the object 

 is not to defend the herbage, but to prevent the frost from 

 rendering the peat light and spongy. 



Sect. 3. Improvement of the Soil hy Fallow Crops, and hy 

 turning in Green Crops, 



I. Fallow crops. " The fallow time," says Liebig, " is that 

 period of culture during which land is exposed to a progres- 

 sive disintegration by means of the influence of the atmos- 

 phere, for the purpose of rendering a certain quantity of alka- 

 lies capable of being appropriated by plants." 



By " fallow crops " is meant the raising of some crop on 

 green-sward while the turf is decaying, instead of allowing 

 the land to remain a naked fallow during this process. 



The object then of fallows, is to procure the decay of vege- 

 table matters, and the abstraction of alkalies from the mineral 

 portions of the soil. 



Naked fallows accomplish both of these objects, and have 

 been long practised both in this country and in England. 

 The practice with us has been to plough up grass lands in 

 June or July, and after cross-ploughing and harrowing, to 

 sow with winter grain in September or October. In Eng- 

 land, the land was formerly ploughed in the fall, and worked 

 over during the following summer. In both cases one crop 

 is lost ; but, though naked fallows answer the intended pur- 



