State of Agriculture in Northumberland. IGl 

 1st year after grass^, oats. 



2nd, turnips and a small quantity of potatoes. 

 3rd, spring- wheat and barley. 

 4th, clover and other grasses. 

 5th, pasture. 



And in some cases, where land is of inferior quality or in a high 

 situation, and where the rearing and feeding of stock are consi- 

 dered more profitable than the frequent repetition of corn, the 

 land is kept in grass for 3 years before being ploughed out. 

 Tempted by the high price of corn durmg the French war, it was 

 not unusual for farmers to break up the grass-land after one 

 year's clover ; but that was found to be, after a few courses, un- 

 profitable, as the clover by frequent repetition was apt to fail, and 

 the land lost that freshness which is so favourable to the growth 

 of turnips, upon the success of which the produce of the entire 

 course so much depends. The soil^ as well as the climate of 

 this district, is peculiarly favourable to pasture ; and while land is 

 resting, as it is called, in grass during an interval of two or three 

 years between the repetition of corn -crops, it is not only acquir- 

 ing a fitness for producing them, by the fresh state in which it 

 comes out again — the want of which even an extra quantity of 

 manure would not compensate — but it is in the mean time paying 

 its way as sheep-pasture. This effect, however, is by no means 

 universal, and therefore the practice cannot be recommended 

 without having experience of its result upon the peculiar soil to 

 which it may be applied ; for, in some districts in the south of 

 England, and especially perhaps on those where chalk and flint 

 prevail, the second and third years' grasses would not only be 

 poor and unproductive, but the land would be less calculated to 

 grow good corn than if it had been only one year in grass, and 

 folded with sheep. 



The Poland and Dutch oats were much grow^n on the best soils 

 at the beginning of the present century, but are now almost 

 entirely superseded by the potato and Hopeton varieties for the 

 best lands, and the common Scotch and Angus for those of poorer 

 quality and higher climate. The potato-oats produced in the 

 district are said to be the best shown in the London market, fre- 

 quently weighing 46 lbs. per bushel, and sometimes more : they 

 are very short and plump in the grain, and very bright in colour, 

 if got in a good season. I remember to have sent a cargo of this 

 description, of my own growing, to Mark Lane, several years 

 ago, expecting to obtain a high price for seed, but the merchants 

 would not buy them for that purpose, asserting that they had 

 been doctored — by which they meant, as I was told, subjected 

 to a clarifying process upon a hair-cloth with sulphur burning 

 below ; a trick which they might understand, but I had never till 



