26 
Rotations. 
simply because the crop that suits a certain shift in a rotation 
has failed, is ploughed up, and something else is tried. 
In the south of England and other of the more genial 
districts the question of introducing “ catch crops ” arises, 
whereby three crops are obtained in two years from time to 
time. Catch crops are for the most part beneficial to the land, 
they are examples of “ intensive ” farming, and enable a 
farmer to carry extra stock. On the other hand they more or 
less upset regular rotations, the Wiltshire system being 
the only one known to the writer where catch crops are 
regularly included in the same. Rape or mustard after potatoes, 
winter rye fed off in spring in time for sowing turnips, maize 
sown at midsummer after a half-fallow, are all examples of 
slipping in a forage crop between two other crops, but which 
are liable to upset methodical rotation, though beneficial and 
desirable otherwise. 
For the purposes of this paper a large number of circulars 
were sent out by the Editing Committee to leading farmers in 
every county in England, asking them to specify the rotation 
each followed or which was common in their respective 
districts, to state the nature of their soil, and to give any other 
information on their system of farming they thought of value. 
Over one hundred gentlemen replied, and the present writer 
may here thank them for their courtesy in filling up the forms 
and giving many details of information. 
In the preceding pages the writer has given a general sketch 
of the whole subject looked at from what might be called 
the theoretical aspect of the question, and now the returns 
obtained as to what are the actual practices followed up and 
down England may be discussed. 
The great outstanding fact learnt from these circulars is the 
universality of the Norfolk or four-course shift. From the north 
to the south of England, and from east to west, this rotation was 
either used in its simplest form or else it was the basis of some 
modification in a majority of cases. Apart from this a study of 
many of the various other rotations known by specific names 
reveals the fact that these also are in many cases simply based 
on the four-course shift! In the northern counties the Berwick 
five-course predominated: corn, roots, corn, seeds, seeds. This, 
however, is just the four-course with an extra year “ laid 
down ” — a “ mixture ” of grass and clover for two years taking 
the place of pure clover for one year. Again, an eight-course 
shift reported from the Midlands proved, on examination, to 
be a double four-course with clover in one group and peas in 
the other. 
Another point brought to the front by these returns is that 
rotations are independent of geological formations. As a 
