Variaiions of the Tow-course System. 
297 
and the land was seeded with mustard or other inexhaustive 
plants, these afforded some protection to the soil, and the land 
generally worked more mellow and kindly in the spring. 
The four-course system was always an expensive one. The 
land was kept clean, and on the best soils fair crops were grown. 
But, as we have already hinted, enthusiasts were carried away 
by the idea that it was applicable to all soils, and hence failure 
and disappointment frequently resulted. 
On most soils the four-course system has given place to a 
more extended and less costly rotation. Stock breeding and 
feeding, and the production of milk, are the aim of every prac- 
tical man. A few years ago the cry went forth that we must 
lay the land down to grass, give up cultivation, and reduce the 
working expenses. This advice was followed for a time, and the 
labour bill, it is true, was reduced, but the returns were simul- 
taneously reduced in a greater degree. The successful laying 
down land to permanent pasture is an expensive operation, and 
one not to be extensively undertaken by a yearly tenant. The 
intelligent cultivator was not slow to grasp the situation, and 
decided accordingly. 
Restrictive covenants as to cropping must, in the first place, 
be removed. The chief condition now requisite is to keep the 
land clean and to grow good crops, but a quitting tenant, what- 
ever his course of ci’opping may have been, must leave the usual 
proportion of fallows and seeds. Most farmers are now con- 
vinced that the best means of meeting outside competition is to 
make the farm as far as practicable self-supporting, both as 
regards stock and forage. This cannot be done by laying the 
land down to permanent pasture. Farmers have long known 
that the heaviest stocks can be kept on mixed occupations ; 
hence purely grass farms, unless of the very finest quality, are 
already at a discount. Old tillage lands can be recuperated by 
an extended course when allowed to remain in grass for a period 
of two or three years, and grazed with sheep or cattle receiving 
a small allowance of cake or other artificial foods. By such 
means the manurial condition of the land is steadily improved, 
and meantime a large accumulation of vegetable matter will have 
been stored up in the soil for the use of future crops. 
Let us compare the cropping of 100 acres of average light 
land cultivated on the four-course system and on the six-course 
system respectively, and note the difierence. Under the former 
we get 50 acres of white-straw crops, 25 acres of roots, and 
25 acres of seeds. Under the latter we take oats after two 
years’ ley, followed by wheat, roots, and then barley or oats. 
Here we practically get the same acreage of cereals, but reduce 
