On the Rotation of Crops. 



291 



To recur to Mr. Pusey's observation on the incipient failure of 

 the four- course" system, I beg to allude to an existing fact, 

 which bears directly on and confirms that gentleman's statement. 

 A neighbouring farmer, with whom I am well acquainted, and 

 whose fields almost join my own property, had, in the late sum- 

 mer, a noble breadth of barley, of full 40 connected acres, with 

 broad clover. In the centre of this piece, a strip of about 3 or 4 

 acres was sown in the autumn of 1837 with trifolkim incarnatum 

 (crimson clover). The terrible frost of January 1838 (2° below 

 zero) cut this plant into patches, but by far the greater portion 

 grew, and bloomed, though it always was dwarf. The farmer 

 assured me that, as respected manure, the piece was the richest 

 of the field. The barley of this year was in every part fine alike, 

 and was safely harvested about the close of August. From that 

 time the clover began to grow freely, but it became apparent that 

 the plant which was on the small portion of the field that had been 

 under trifolium incarnatum in 1838 was comparatively weak. A 

 foot-path crosses this piece through its whole length, diagonally, 

 so that every part of it is brought into sight. The stubble of the 

 barley is now, and has been for weeks, surmounted by the rich 

 herbage of the clover in every part of the extensive breadth, with 

 the single exception of the trifolium piece ; there it is seen still 

 high above the clover, marking, as by a boundary line, the exact 

 limits of the piece. 



The proprietor ascribes the weakness of the present crop entirely 

 to the trifolium, though he does not reason on the subject as in 

 any way connected with the theory of radical exudation. 



One other circum.stance only remains to be mentioned. Here 

 and there one may perceive an irregular patch of clover overtop- 

 ping the barley-stubble, and looking verdant as the plant of the 

 great breadth. I would not take unwarrantable advantage of a 

 fact whereon the memory cannot retain sufficient evidence ; but 

 certain it is that the trifolium perished in patches, and it would 

 not be unfair to conjecture that the places so left bare were not 

 poisoned for clover by the fecal exudations of the previous crop. 



I offer the foregoing remarks with all due humility, and in the 

 hope that they may induce further inquiry into the philosophy of 

 the great law of Rotation. 



John Towers. 



November, 1639. 



vantage on certain soils, and can only rarely be continued without evident 

 diminution of their amount. Yet the ' Theory of the rotation of Crops' 

 still holds out a wide field for research ; and, if followed up, bids fair to 

 solve the problem of vegetation." See vol. ii., ch. 6 and 7 of ' British Hus- 

 bandry in which will be found extracts from Von Thaer's luminous essay 

 on soils and rotations, translated from his ' Principes raisonnes d' Agri- 

 culture.^ — F. Burke. 



