266 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL. 



pose tolerably well, they are now abandoned by every intelli- 

 gent farmer on both sides of the water ; with the exception 

 perhaps of wet stiff clays, which are ameliorated by exposing 

 the naked furrows to the frosts of winter. The evils of the 

 system are more than equivalent to the benefits. The labor 

 is much increased, one crop is lost, and the vegetable matters 

 are dissipated, by their exposure to the air during the pro- 

 cess of working the land. 



Fallow crops, on the other hand, avoid these evils, and se- 

 cure greater benefit both to the soil and the crop. 



Process. To prepare the soil for a fallow crop, all that is 

 needed is to plough the green-sward and roll it down ; then, 

 after harrowing thoroughly, the seed should be sown upon 

 the inverted furrows, either in the spring or fall. If the land 

 is stiff and wet, the autumn is preferable ; if light and dry, 

 the spring is the best season. 



The utility of fallow crops, instead of naked fallows, may 

 be shown by reference to the influence of growing vegetables 

 upon the soil. The elimination of alkalies and decay of 

 vegetable matter are, as we have said, the only objects of 

 fallows. 



It may easily be shown, that both of these ends are much 

 belter attained by tilling the fallow land ; for, 



1. The alkalies are furnished in greater abundance by this 

 process. It matters not whether the land is covered by woods, 

 or with some crop which will take up but few alkalies, such 

 as potash and phosphates. Now it is found that several legu- 

 minous plants will grow upon a soil, and will abstract from it 

 but a minute portion of alkalies. The " Windsor bean {vi- 

 ciafaba) contains no free alkalies, and only one per cent, of 

 the phosphates of lime and magnesia." [Ein/iof.) " The 

 kidney bean (phaseolus vulgaris) ^coni^ms only traces of salts." 

 (Braconnot.) " The stem of lucern (mcdicago sativa) con- 

 tains only 0.83 per cent., that of the lentil (crvnni lens) only 

 0.57 of phosphate of lime with albumen." (Cromc.) 



