ROTATION 
2. barley, wheat, or oats, 3. and 4. clovers, ard 5. 
oats. A crop of winter tares sometimes precedes 
the fallowing process after being eaten on the 
ground, but the mode is generally imperfect, as a 
very effectual part of the process is usually per- 
formed by the time the first furrow is given to 
the land, and the state of cultivation is much in- 
ferior to the fallows that are effected from winter 
ploughings which have derived the benefits of 
the vicissitudes of atmospheric action. The cus- 
| tom is very frequent on turnip soils, and even in 
those lands the fallowing tilth is inferior, except 
in some few particular cases.” A new rotation 
for heavy clay soils is recommended by Mr. J. 8. 
Nowlson of Hertfordshire, as one which he has 
found, after an experience of some years, to an- 
swer well. One-fourth of the whole arable area, 
on this system, is disposed in wheat; and after 
the wheat comes an oat crop, the one-half of 
which is sown alternately with clover,—after 
that, sown with winter tares, to be eaten off 
green by fattening sheep,—and then, bastard 
fallow for wheat; and the other half is fallowed 
for turnips, partly to be eaten on the land and 
partly drawn off,—then, fallowed for spring 
tares or cole to be eaten off by sheep, and then 
ready for wheat again; so that a farm of 200 
acres will show as follows,—50 acres of wheat, 50 
of oats, 25 of winter tares, 25 of fallow for tur- 
nips, 25 of clover, and 25 of cole or tares. 
Rotations suitable for loams and loamy clays 
| are more diversified than those suitable for stiff 
clays, and especially comprise a greater number 
of valuable fallowing crops, and admit an ample 
scope and more effectual play of cleaning cul- 
ture without the aid of naked fallows. An ex- 
cellent one, practised on the dry fertile loams of 
Kast Lothian, in the district around Dunbar, 
consists of 1. turnips, manured, and generally 
eaten off by sheep, 2. wheat, with clover and rye- 
grass seeds, 3. grass, fed off by sheep or cattle, 4. 
oats, 5. beans, manured and drilled, and 6. wheat ; 
and this admits of being extended to eight years 
by substituting barley for the wheat of the sixth 
year and by adding clover and rye-grass for the 
seventh year and oats for the eighth; and it also, 
in cases of peculiar subsoil or of special wants on 
the farm or of controlling circumstances in the 
district or the market, readily allows the turnips 
of the first year to be substituted by bare fallow, 
or by any one of several drilled green crops, or 
the oats of the fourth by pulse, or the beans of 
the fifth by winter forage plants. “ A course of 
six years,” says Donaldson, ‘is most approved 
on these soils,—1. green crops, 2. wheat, 3. 
clovers, cut for hay or soiling, or consumed by 
stock on the ground, 4. oats or leguminous plants, 
5. winter tares or late turnips eaten on the land, 
and 6, wheat; or the four years’ course, — 1. 
green crops, 2. wheat, 3. clover, and 4. oats. 
Beans, horse and hand hoed, may be used after 
the oats, along with the winter tares in portions, 
and alternately as the rotation goes on, and the 
a 
OF CROPS. 
G5 
land will thus obtain a change of plants, and the 
green crops may be varied to suit a similar mode 
of cultivation. The four years’ course,—l. tur- 
nips, 2. barley, 3. clover, and 4. wheat, is too 
short, and the same plants recur too frequently ; 
and it has been proposed to double the course, 
and extend it to eight years, thus,—5. cabbages 
or mangel wurzel, 6. oats, 7. tares or pease, 8. 
barley,—and for two years more, 9. beans, and 
10. wheat; and also,—1. turnips or cabbages, 2. 
barley, 3. clover and tares, 4. wheat, 5. potatoes 
and beet, 6. barley, 7. clover, and 8. oats, or 
wheat ; and also,—1. beet and potatoes, 2. oats, 
3. clover, 4. wheat, 5. turnips and cabbages, 6. 
barley, 7. beans, pease, and tares, and 8. wheat. 
The rotation of eight or more years is a repeti- 
tion of that of four years, with the object of 
changing the plants raised as green crops, and 
substituting a leguminous and clover crop alter- 
nately, so that each occurs only once in the 
course of the rotation. But this object may be 
attained by varying the four years’ course in the 
fields as they occur for cropping in succession ; 
and if the soil be not all alike suitable for similar 
cropping, a change in the plants will be neces- 
sary. A course of five or six years is usually 
preferred, and is generally found more commo- 
dious, as it affords full opportunity of cultivating 
the most valuable plants, and also of profitable 
alternation. A course of six years has been very 
usefully employed,—l. turnips and other escu- 
lents, 2. wheat, 3. beans, pease, tares, 4. barley, 
5. clover, and 6. oats. Unless the land be very 
clean and in high condition, the clover crop is 
too far removed from the cleaning and manur- 
ing process, otherwise the different crops are 
well arranged. It would be desirable that one 
crop be eaten on the ground as an auxiliary ma- 
nure to support constant cropping, as a legumin- 
ous crop is proposed in a similar course on clay 
fallows; and the course may stand thus,—1. 
green crops, 2. barley or wheat, 3. clover, 4. oats, 
5. vetches, consumed on the ground, and 6. 
wheat; and in five years thus,—l. turnips, 2. 
barley, 3. seeds, 4. pease or tares, eaten on the 
ground, and 5. wheat or oats. These rotations 
apply to clay loams of the first quality. On 
those of an inferior description, and on the best | 
turnip lands, rotations somewhat different are 
used, including grass for two years, where there 
are no grass lands for producing hay and pastur- 
age for the stock. A course of six years includes 
the following crops,—1l. turnips and other green 
plants, 2. barley or wheat, 3. and 4. clover, 5. 
beans, pease, tares, and 6. wheat or oats, alter- 
nately on the fields. A course of five years is 
followed by omitting the pease and beans, and 
sowing oats as the fifth crop; or pease and beans 
may be sown in the fourth year, and followed by 
oats. A course of eight years has been recom- 
mended, — 1. turnips, 2. wheat or barley, 3. 
clover, 4. and 5. pasture, 6. oats, 7. tares, and 8. 
wheat ; or it may be limited to seven years by 
