HUSBANDRY. 
527 
removed without expofure to the heat of the fummer’s 
fun, and the pulverization afforded by the repeated ope¬ 
rations of the plough and the harrow. There is no fort 
of crop that can in fuch cafes fupply the place of fallow, 
as turnips are highly detrimental; and drilled beans, 
though they may anfwer in the way of an aftiltant to fal¬ 
low, and have the tendency of keeping lands clean that 
are already in a proper condition, it is l'uppofed, from the 
neceffity there is of lowing them early, can never be be¬ 
neficially fubftituted for the radical improvement that is 
produced by a hummer-fallow. 
It is however added, that, even if fuch forts of land 
could be kept perfectly clean and free from weeds by the 
judicious interpofition of bean, cabbage, or other fimilar 
crops that might be cultivated on them, it is evident that 
the various beneficial produCls which have been mention¬ 
ed, and which are the refult, in a great meafure, of the 
perfect pulverization and high degree of aeration that are 
produced by means of fummer-fallowing, could never be 
formed in fuch an abundant manner as to be of much 
utility in aiding the growth of crops ; nor could they be 
in fo fuitable a condition for the admiflion and extenfion 
of the abforbent roots of the plants that may be culti¬ 
vated upon them as crops. 
But though the practice of fallowing is fo highly ufeful 
on fuch wet, adhefive, or clayey, foils, yet the repetition 
of the practice fhould be prevented.as much as poffible, 
by the cultivation and growth of green crops, as often as 
the lands may be in a flate for them, and they can be 
had recourfe to with any chance of fuccefs. The Swedifh 
turnip, as being a plant fomewhat more adapted to ftiff 
foils than either the common cabbage or turnip, might 
probably, in fuch cafes, be advantageoufly fubftituted as 
a green crop ; and by being eaten off in the later fpring 
months, when the ground became fufficiently dry to bear 
the cattle or flieep without injury, admit of a pea-crop ; 
after which, the land would probably be in a fuitable 
condition for wheat; or a crop of clover might be taken, 
and then wheat. But in all fuch cafes much muft de¬ 
pend upon the degree of cleannefs, pulverization, and ae¬ 
ration, that has been accomplifhed by the preceding ufe 
of fummer-fallowing. And as there is much variety in 
the conditions of fuch foils as may oceafionally require 
the aid of fummer-fallowing, in order to render them fuit¬ 
able for the growth of grain or other crops ; fome, from 
the nature of their fituations, and the fub-foils on which 
they are placed, being more inclined to the retention of 
moifture than others, are confequently more difpofed to 
be cold, and to the throwing up of laige crops of weeds; 
while others, from a large proportion of tenacious loamy 
materials that may be mixed and incorporated with pebbly 
or other ingredients, may be more ftiff and retentive, and 
of courfe more incapable of iufficient pulverization, and of 
admitting the roots of fuch plants Us are capable of being- 
cultivated upon them, to readily eltablifh themfelves, and 
draw from them fufficient fupplies of nourilhment. And, 
befides the varieties of thefe different foils, there may be 
others that have not hitherto been well afcertgined, fuch 
as may proceed from the differences in the qualities or pro¬ 
perties of the clays or loams as they enter into their com- 
pofitions, upon each of which fome diverfity in refpeCI to 
the neceffity, repetition, or method of conducing the bu- 
finefs of fallowing, may depend. The judicious farmer 
lhould, therefore, conltantly keep them in view, when¬ 
ever it may be requifite for him to prepare land by means 
of fummer-fallowing. 
It is fatisfa&orily fhown, by a late writer on hufban- 
dry, that one great purpofe of the fallow-fyftem is that of 
dellroying, weeds which, in confequence of previous bad 
management and of over-cropping, have increafed to fuch 
a degree,, as to render cultivation for grain' no longer 
profitable. Land being allowed to reft for a feafon from 
yielding a crop, and being repeatedly ploughed, the foil 
expofed to the influence of the different feafons, and at 
the fame time completely pulverized, its fertility is again 
fomewhat reftored, fo that, by the application of a fmaller 
portion of manure than would be otherwife necefiary, it 
is rendered fit for again producing crops of grain or grafs. 
It is a faff univerfally acknowledged, that all foils, even 
thole naturally the rnofl fertile, will be rendered unpro- 
dufiive by conllant and fevere cropping; and that the 
more improper the modes of cropping are, the fooner, 
and the more certainly, will a comparative barrennefs en^ 
l'ue. Hence, the propriety of fallowing, where imperfeft 
modes of 'culture are adopted. 
Fallowing, in w-hat may be called the infancy of im- 
provetnents in agriculture, is alfo, it is conceived, efienti- 
ally neceffary. If land be greatly exhaulted, no matter by 
what fort of previous mifinanagement, fallowing is, it is 
fuppofed, the mod expeditious, the moll effectual, and 
every thing confidered, the leaft expensive, method that 
can be adopted for reftoring its fertility, and rendering.it 
productive. It is the molt expeditious, becaufe it is 
completely done in the courfe of one feafon, whereas fe- 
veral years of culture, and a great additional quantity of 
manure, would be requifite, were any other mode of til¬ 
lage adopted. It is the molt effectual, becaufe.the farmer 
has it in his own power to^deftroy every weed, to turn 
over and expofe the foil to the influence of the weather 
in the different feafons, and alfo to level and lira igh ten 
the ridges, drain the land, and remove every obftruCiion 
to the introduction of better modes of hulbandry, none 
of which could be fo conveniently or effectually per¬ 
formed between the harv.eft of one year and the. feed-time 
of the next. Fallowing is alfo, upon the whole,.the leait 
expenfive method by which the fertility of land greatly 
exhaulted can be reftored, and the only one that can be 
adopted with a certainty of fuccefs for the'removal of 
every obitacle to the introduction of more perfeCt agri¬ 
culture. Manure operates more powerfully when applied 
to a field that has been properly fummer-fallowed, than 
when laid on oiie that has been long under an improper 
courfe of cropping. The returns, after fallowing, will 
be to a certainty greater; and, therefore,.although the ac¬ 
tual expence of a fummer-fallow is considerable, yet the 
crop that fucceeds is fo much greater as to counterba¬ 
lance that expence,- while thofe that follow,, if. properly 
adapted to the foil, will yield the farmer a proper com- 
penfation for his extra trouble and expence.. 
For land already in cultivation, the great ufes of fallow 
are, to preferve it in a ftate of fine tilth, to clean it of 
weeds, and, by turning it up to the air, to caufe a more 
perfeCt putrefaction of the animal and vegetable matters 
it may contain. This lalt effeCt is fo clearly afeertained, 
that the land which has been repeatedly dunged has been 
found to yield a much better crop, in confequence of a 
fallow without dung, than from a complete coat of dung 
without a fallow; and this too, after the productive power 
of the land had been much exhaulted by cropping. But 
for land that is to be reclaimed from a natural ftate, or 
from a rude and imperfeCt ftate of cultivation, a fallow 
is always indifpenfably neceffary for various reafons, and 
particularly thofe of affording a convenient opportunity 
to level the inequalities, and to lay the land in the molt 
proper form for future cultivation. 
The intelligent authors of the “Agricultural Survey 
of the County of Northumberland, M ftate that the prac¬ 
tice of making fummer-fallows on all kinds of foils, once 
in three or four years, was general throughout that county 
till the introduction of turnips; in a few years the fal¬ 
lows of the dry-lands -were covered with this valuable 
plant. On fuch other foiis as were found improper for 
this root, the fummer-fallows (till prevail, with an almoft 
univerial opinion that it is abfolutely necellary to the 
fertility of the land ; yet there are fome few, they fay, 
who dare to doubt this long-eltablilhed doCtrine, and 
prefume to think that fallowing might be difpenfed with 
in many fituations, by cultivating leguminous crops, drilled 
at 
