HUSBANDR Y. 
ft 
537 
Mire, beans or peafe may often be made the preparation 
for barley, or even occafionally, for wheat, in this way : 
—i. Beans or peafe. 2. Barley. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. 
And the courfe may be further varied, by having recourfe 
to tares and turnips, according as the ftate of the land 
may be fuitable. 
In regard to the thinner description of chalky foils, 
and fuch old down-lands as are become fo unprodiiftive 
of herbage, as to be incapable of being continued any 
longer in the ftate of Iheep-walk or pafture, it has been 
propofed, as the bell method of cropping them when 
brought under the plough, to make turnips, or fome other 
luxuriant green crop, which, while it keeps the land 
clean, and affords a large fupply of green food for the 
fupport of fheep or other fort of live-itock, is highly be¬ 
neficial by preferring the humidity, which in fuch forts of 
land is liable to be too rapidly carried off, the prepara¬ 
tion for corn. The courfe in. this view may (land thus : 
—1. Turnips. 2. Barley. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. Or, 
dn particular inftances, as where feed-weeds are apt to pre¬ 
vail in a high .degree, two crops of turnips may be grown 
before any grain-crop with much benefit. And, in cafes 
where fuch lands are defigned to be kept for a greater 
length of time in the ftate of tillage, two crops of turnips 
may be again taken after the wheat, which will leave the 
land in a perfect ftate of preparation for barley ; after 
which faintfoin may be introduced, as affording an excel¬ 
lent fheep-pafture for a number of years. But in thefe 
cafes the turnip and clover crops muff always be fed off 
by fheep, which ought not to be removed from the land 
during the whole of the time the crops are in cOnfump- 
tion j fuch other forts of food as may be neceffary’being 
conveyed to them on the ground. In this way, it is 
imagined, the land will be left in the belt ftate poffible 
for the growth of barley, without the great trouble and 
exnence which muff otherwife be incurred for manure. 
In cafes where the foil is fufficiently friable and mel¬ 
low in its nature, the method of cropping may be in this 
way:,—1. Peafe. 2. Oats. 3. Turnips. 4. Barley, with 
grafs-feeds. Or, where it is int'ended to continue the 
courfe, it may be done by going on with turnips or peafe, 
as before ; concluding the courfe with faintfoin, as fup- 
plying a . pafture for fheep for a number of years. By 
properly attending to thefe directions in the courfes of 
cropping, and the mode, of managing fuch forts of land, 
very confiderable improvement' may be made, both in 
rendering them capable of producing excellent crops of 
the grain kind, and in affording a much larger fupply of 
green food for the fupport of fheep, and other forts of 
llve-ftock, than is commonly the cafe under other modes 
of cropping and confuming their produce. 
V. On the Peaty Kinds of Soil, and fuck as have been long 
under the Syjlem of Grain-crops. 
Course. — 1. Cole-feed, or turnips. 2. Cole-feed, or 
turnips. 3. Oats. 4. Ruta baga, or Swedifh turnips. 
5. Barley. 6. Graffes. 7. Graffes. 8. Graffes. 9. Grades. 
10. Potatoes. 11. Barley. 12. Tares, or peafe. 13. Bar¬ 
ley, with grafs-feeds. In the bufinefs of cropping foils of 
the peaty, moory, and fenny, kinds, it has been recom¬ 
mended by fome wa iters, after freeing them by fuitable 
draining from injurious moiflure and wetnefs, that a dif¬ 
ference fhould be made according as they are deep, or the 
contrary, in the fuperficial peaty covering. It is fug- 
gefted that, in the former kind, the molt fuitable method 
may be that of making turnips, potatoes, cabbages, cole, 
or any of fuch forts of crops, the-plants of which pro¬ 
duce much fhade; and which, by preferving the moifture 
in the more fuperficial parts of the land, may promote 
their decompofition and decay, the preparation for corn ; 
in which intention the courfe may be :—1. Turnips, cab¬ 
bages, or cole. 2. Oats. 3. Turnips, cabbages,"or cole. 
4. Oats. 5. Clover. 6. Wheat. 7. Turnips, &c. 8. Oats, 
with grafs-feeds, to remain fome years. 
It may be remarked here, that potatoe-crops. though 
Vol. X. No. 68s. 
they have been confidered objectionable by foipe farmers 
from their great exhaufting quality in this kind of land, 
have been fnown by experience to be highly beneficial 
and proper. Where this fort of crop is in ufe, the courfe 
maybe:—1. Potatoes. 2. Oats. 3. Turnips, cole, or cab¬ 
bages. 4. Turnips, cole, or cabbages. 5. Oats, with 
grafs-feeds. 
On this defeription of foil in the northern parts of 
Scotland, the ufe of potatoes, as a firft crop, has been 
found, the author of Modern Agriculture fays, by much 
the mod certain and beneficial mode; the fucceeding oat- 
crops being not only in moft cafes more certain, but 
greatly more abundant and produftive. But on the thin¬ 
ner kinds of foils of thi? nature, as thofe of the moory 
and fenny forts, with the fubfoil of a ftilf and retentive 
quality, it may be the moft advifeable to commence with 
cole, making it the preparation for corn, in this manner:— 
1. Cole, 1. Cole. 
2. Oats, 2. Oats. 
3. Cole, 3. Beans, with dung. 
4. Oats. 4. Potatoes. 
5. Wheat. 
6. Cole. 
7. Oats. 
But in the latter of thefe courfes, in confequence of 
potatoes and wheat coming together, it is probable they 
may be too much for the land, as the experiments ftated 
above have fliown them to be highly exhaufting crops; a 
better plan may be, therefore, that of fubftituting beans 
in the place of the potatoes, in this manner:—1. Cole. 
2. Oats, with manure. 3. Beans. 4. Wheat. 5. Cole. 
6. Oats. And it is not improbable but that, in fome 
cafes of this nature, clover-crops may be introduced as a 
preparation for the wheat. 
In thofe circumftances where the dry quality of fuch 
foils, and their difpofition to the production of a good 
turf or fward, is lucli as to admit of their being culti¬ 
vated under the convertible fyftem, or that of alternate 
grain and grafs, which is often a moft advantageous me¬ 
thod, it will be proper, in directing the courfe of crop¬ 
ping, not only to conlider the particular quality of the 
foil, but the growth of fuch forts of roots and plants, or 
other crops, as may, while they tend to clean, improve, 
and prepare, the ground for the production of crops of 
grain and grafs, be the moft fuited to the feeding, rear¬ 
ing, and maintaining, of thofe deferiptions of live-dock 
which are capable of affording the moft regular and abun¬ 
dant fupplies of human food, at the different feal'ons or 
periods when they are the moft wanted. 
This is a fyftem which may often be carried on to 
great advantage upon the loamy, gravelly, and fenny, as 
well as the thinner forts of peaty, toils ; as, in confequence 
of their having a great number of different green-crops 
fed off upon the ground, a degree of amelioration and 
improvement is effected, while they are under the tillage- 
fyftem, which mull be highly beneficial for the produc¬ 
tion of grafs; and by being occafionally laid down to 
grafs for a fhort interval, and thickly ftocked with lheep, 
they muff become in am excellent ftate for being again 
brought under the plough. ^This is in lliort a fore of 
liulbandry which has been fclfcnd extremely beneficial in 
many diftriCls. It is praCtifed with great advantage in 
the county of Northumberland ; it having been there 
found that, on the Tandy and dry light loamy foils, ex¬ 
cellent grain-crops, efpecially oats, may be grown by the 
lands remaining three years under grafs, clofely eaten 
with fheep, which could never be done while they were 
managed according to their old method of practice. 
Under this fyftem of management, on the more wet 
and Itiff kinds of loam, where there is confiderable ferti¬ 
lity, the courfe of cropping may be as below, after firll 
breaking-up :—1. Beans, or oats. 2. Turnips. 3. Barley. 
4. Ciover, or winter tares. 5. Wheat. 6. Turnips. 7. Bar¬ 
ley. 8. Grafs-feeds for three, four, or more, years.—Or, 
1. Oats. a. Beans. 3. Wheat. 4. Fallow, and grafs for four 
6 X or 
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