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procured, to ensure abundant crops through the whole course;and the proper periods of its application are on the fallow be-fore the first crop of wheat, and on the clover stubble in thefifth year, and to the drilled beans the seventh year. If a suf-ficiency of manure cannot be commanded, the rotation shouldbe limited to six years, ending with the crop of oats, and re-commencing by a new fallow; otherwise the beans and wheatof the seventh and eighth years will be apt to become scanty,and the land will run much to weeds. To shorten the stepsof the rotation, from an eight course shift, as it is technicallycalled, to one of six shifts, the land may be continued ingrass, for a second or even a third year, according to cir-cumstances.
On thin clays, as possessing very moderate fertility, andconsequently affording weaker crops both of grain and grass,a very gentle application of tillage is necessary, otherwise thesoil would soon become exhausted, and the produce be un-equal to the expence of cultivation. Where a sufficiency ofmanure can be procured for keeping these soils in a completestate of fertility, by giving them a dressing of muck once infour years, the following rotation of four shifts may be fol-lowed : 1. Fallow with muck; 2. Wheat; 3. Clover and rye-grass ; 4. Oats ; and so round again by a new fallow. Butwhere such soils have to depend entirely on their own scantyresources, it becomes often necessary to keep them longer ingrass than one year, so as always to secure a sufficient quan-tity of muck for the fallow break, on which the success of thewhole rotation entirely depends. Such soils, it is true, donot improve much while under grass, neither is their pasturevery valuable; but by no other means can they be refreshedand invigorated where muck is wanting ; and though the pas-ture may not produce much profit, it is procured at little orno expence. Including, therefore, the protracted ley, thisrotation for thin clays will stand thus : 1. Fallow with muck;2. Wheat; 3. Clover and rye-grass ; 4. Pasture ; 5. Pasture;6. Oats.