74 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



have failed ; but this is a mistake, as the tenant was a thorough good 

 farmer, and from some cause very little of the seed came up : very pro- 

 bably the stringent system of cropping was the cause of it, as there is no 

 doubt but what some soils require a change in the system of cropping. 

 The field which I refer to lay all the season with a crop of weeds, which 

 proved very much against the interest of the farmer as well as the 

 farm. 



It is quite possible to insert a clause in a lease, in regard to crop- 

 ping, which will give the farmer a certain amount of freedom in the 

 tillage of his land, and at the same time prevent him from doing any 

 injury to the farm. This might simply be done, precluding the tenant 

 from taking two grain crops in succession that is to say, that after each 

 grain crop there shall be at least one green crop. A farmer with a 

 lease always finds it to be to his best interest to keep his land in the 

 highest state of fertility, and consequently he would never think of 

 impoverishing the land by a continued succession of grain crops. Where 

 there are farmers still working under the old-fashioned year-to-year 

 system, I think it is necessary to confine them to a rotation, as there 

 are, unfortunately, unprincipled men who would take ' advantage, and 

 take all they could from their farms for a few years, with the view of leav- 

 ing them as soon as they could not grow any more crops to profit. Even 

 with a lease it is necessary, as I have already stated, to have some means of 

 restricting a tenant to\vards the latter end of his lease, as there are many 

 men who would not pay so much attention to the land as it would 

 require, if they intended to leave their farms. 



The chief systems of rotation in vogue in England and Scotland are 

 the four, five, and six years' rotation. The four years' course is more 

 generally followed in England than Scotland. It is as follows : 



First year Green crop, turnips, rape, or mangolcl-wurzel. 



Second year A grain crop, sown with grass-seeds. 



Third year Clover-seeds. 



Fourth year A grain crop, and then back to a green crop again. 



A five years' rotation is: The first year, a crop of wheat, oats, or barley ; 

 after that, in the second year, a green crop ; the third year, a crop of 

 wheat, oats, or barley, sown down with a crop of clover and ryegrass 

 seeds ; and in the fourth and fifth years the land remains under the 

 clover-seeds, to be again ploughed up in the sixth year for a grain crop. 

 A six years' course of rotation is as follows : First year, oats after grass ; 

 second, green crop ; third year, wheat, oats, or barley, sown down with 

 clover and ryegrass seeds ; fourth year, the clover-grasses are usually cut 

 for hay ; and in the fifth and sixth years the land remains under pasture. 

 The following is another six years' rotation, suitable for strong land in 



