On the Farming of Suffolk. 



269 



This may be taken as the general course. The modifications 

 which are occasionally made by good farmers are : — In the first 

 year having all long fallow on strong land, or all roots, or growing 

 rye-grass or trefoil for spring feed, and then breaking up for 

 fallow. In the second year the growing wheat after beet, and 

 sometimes after turnips, instead of barley. In the third year, the 

 growing tares instead of beans, and, what has lately been intro- 

 duced, the cultivation of Italian rye-grass instead of clover, by 

 which the repetition of the latter is removed from eight to twelve 

 years. And the growing of oats on freshly broken-up land, and, 

 to a small extent, in lieu of other white-straw crops for the pur- 

 pose of home consumption. 



Variations, the usefuhiess of which is much to be questioned, 

 are the taking a third crop, as it is called, which is oats after wheat 

 and then fallow ; the growing white-straw crops in succession on 

 freshly broken-up pasture : many instances are known of farmers 

 ploughing up a piece of sward, taking first coleseed, and then 

 wheat for three years running. Such scourging as this is much to 

 be reprobated, and is productive of considerable injury to the 

 land, the farmer, and the nation at large ; such deviations as 

 growing two white-straw crops in succession ought never to be 

 sanctioned, though deviations from any rotation, however good, 

 may frequently be made with propriety by the judicious cultivator 

 to suit circumstances. The constant recurrence of one monoto- 

 nous round of cropping must after a time end in the failure, to a 

 certain extent, of one or more of the plants grown ; and the 

 farmer being bound to this, is unable to exercise his judgment 

 in growing those crops which will command the highest price in 

 the market. 



The four- course rotation, as adopted on the heavy land of Suf- 

 folk, is perhaps better suited to this description of land than most 

 others ; it is certainly better than any other that has yet been 

 tried. 



The recurrence on the average of a long fallow once in eight 

 years is considered absolutely necessary by the best farmers for 

 the cleaning and amelioration of stiff land by repeated ploughings 

 and pulverizations ; and there are a few who consider a clean 

 fallow is necessary every four years. The failure of the clover 

 is generally prevented by its recurrence only once in eight 

 years. The growing of peas and beans to be followed by wheat 

 may be objected to by some who farm in a distant part of the 

 country, but without much cause ; the deep hoeings and clean cul- 

 tivation of the pulse makes it a good preparation for wheat — as 

 an instance of which, one farmer has grown wheat and beans 

 alternately for twenty years without any perceptible deterioration 

 of the annual crop, in a part of the county where the four- 



