ANOTHER TALE OF ARC ALT. 65 



with black oats, all the available manure of tlie 

 little " estate " being bestowed upon it for the 

 succeeding barley crop. The third year the land 

 was laid down again to fallow with a second 

 crop of oats, but always without grass seeds, so 

 that the future herbage came no one knew 

 exactly how. In such case, however, nature 

 seemed to let loose her ubiquitous weeds, and 

 soon a green mantle overspread the fallow. 



One of the first improvements upon this state 

 of things was the application of lime to such 

 lands as were wet and moss-grown. This pro- 

 cess was universally ridiculed until the result 

 was seen, when lime-kilns sprung up every- 

 where. 



Although spring- wheat was cultivated in the 

 northern counties as early as the sixteenth 

 century, green crops as food for cattle are of 

 recent date. As to pot-herbs and the produce 

 of the vegetable garden generally, a century 

 ago they were nearly unknown. Oaten bread, 

 dressed barley, and onions constituted the more 

 cooling diet of the common people, with very 

 little variety. At the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, however, Common-gardens were laid 

 out in the environs of most northern country 



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