92 
THE farmer’s manual. 
Others consider all naked fallows as a waste of ex- 
pense, without any adequate benefit, and insist upon 
some fallow crops, either of turnips, to be fed off by 
sheep, or of potatoes, to be dug for stock, or of buck- 
wheat, or clover, to be ploughed in as a fertilizing 
crop. Both probably are in an error, and run into 
the opposite extremes. A strong stiff clay, or a hard 
gravelly soil, cannot be ploughed too often for a fal- 
low ; but a loose sandy soil may be greatly injured 
by too frequent ploughings. The latter may be till- 
ed to advantage, with a potatoe fallow jisand the for- 
mer by a turnip fallow, to bo fed off by sheep ; orafter 
several ploughings, with the fertilizing fallows of buck- 
wheat, ploughed in : but a rough stony soil cannot be 
tilled with a fallow crop to advantage; this land, and 
perhaps this only, requires a naked summer fallow. 
The great advantages to be derived from a summer 
fallow are these : 
1. Frequent ploughings destroy the herbage upon 
the fallows, and the roots and seeds of herbage, and 
thus render the grounds clean for the following crops. 
2. This is greatly promoted by a potatoe fallow, 
both in hoeing and digging. 
3. The plough renders the earth light and mellow, to 
receive the seed when sown, and to admit the exten- 
sion of the roots of the grain, when it vegetates. 
4. At each ploughing it changes the soil, aqd ex- 
poses a new surface to receive the benefits of the sun, 
air, rains and dews, with their fertilizing powers. 
5. It renders the earth light and pervious, for the 
admission of the sun, air, rains and dews, and opens 
a free ciirulaiion for them to the roots of the grain, 
(or plants, whatever.) and thus they impart their fer- 
tilizing properties to the vital princi])les of the crop 
you cultivate. 
6. The green fallow, when ploughed in, as well as 
the poialoe fallow, *greatly promote this benefit, by 
meliorating the soil. Upon this principle, the 
plough, with the fertilizing crops, upon a summer fal- 
