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soil, the manure is laid on, and evenly spread over the sur-face, whether muck, lime, marl, or compost. A second ga-thering is now given by the plough ; and this being general-ly the furrow upon which the seed is sown, great care is usedto plough as equal as possible. After the seed is sown andthe land thoroughly harrowed, all the interfurrows, furrowsof the head-lands, and oblique or gaw furrows are carefullyopened up by the plough, and cleared out by the spade, asalready mentioned, respecting the first or winter ploughing.
In the opinion of some farmers, fallow land which is to besown with wheat, ought not to be what they call too muchreduced in its tilth, as they have a notion that the clods, bymouldering down in the succeeding spring, assist to nourishand earth up the young and tender plants, and to preventthem from being thrown out by frost. The necessity ofbreaking down all clods by the fallow process, as indispensa-ble tor the destruction of weeds, its grand object, has beenalready adverted to j and under good management, there willhardly fail to be a sufficiency of clods or lumps to serve thesepurposes ; as there is almost every season, abundant rain inAugust, called provincially LammasJiooas, to restore sufficienttenacity and cloddiness to clay soil, the only fit subject forfallow
The operations of the fallow process which have been de-scribed and insisted on, as necessary to all good husbandry,on stiff clays and wet soils with a retentive bottom, are nume-rous, and consequently expensive : in few cases less than six,sometimes seven or eight ploughings, are necessary, with sixor more complete harrowings. On the principles of comput-ing the expences of culture formerly mentioned, these willcost from three to four pounds per acre, besides one year’srent and taxes extraordinary, merely as a preparation in thefirst instance for a crop of wheat. But, when the superiorityof that crop is considered, as produced by an effectual fallow,in preference to a slovenly one, and more especially when thesuperior goodness of the subsequent ley is taken into account,