OF SCOTLAND.
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SECT. II.
ROTATION ON LOAMS.
ILvery soil which is intermediate between absolute clay andburning sand or gravel, has received the denomination ofloam; and as clayey loam and loamy clays in so far as re-gards the rotation or course of crops, may be ranked underthe head of clay soils, they may be cropped exactly on theprinciples already explained in the preceding section, thoughthey verge considerably towards that division appropriatedto light land, from which they differ only in degrees of qua-lity. Rich free loam is unquestionably the most profitableand most agreeable to cultivate of any description of soil, asit almost uniformly produces abundant crops of all kinds, andaffords excellent pasture. The minutiae of its management,or the particular steps of its rotation, depend much on thenature of the subsoil. If that is of a retentive nature, thesoil will require to be cleaned from root weeds, once in a ro-tation of six or eight years, by means of a summer fallow,exactly like clay of the best description, and the steps of therotation itself, will be similar to those already proposed forthat genus of soil. Whereas, when incumbent on a free bot-tom, a fallow crop of drilled turnips is perfectly sufficient foreffectual cleaning, and is therefore greatly preferable to nakedfallow. These circumstances being properly considered, therotation on loam may be as follows : 1. Fallow or turnips, ac-cording to the nature of the subsoil: 2. Wheat on so much
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of the land as is laid bare of turnips in sufficient time for thatcrop, barley or oats on the rest; 3. Clover and rye-grass;4. Oats after grass ; 5. Drilled beans ; 6. Barley ; 7. Cloverand rye-grass ; 8. Oats ; and this crop succeeded by fallow orturnips, introduces a fresh rotation. Many intelligent far-