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ON THE ARABLE LANU

SECT. VII.

OF ROTATIONS ACCORDING TO THE STATE OF CULTURE.

Having insisted at considerable length on rotations, or theleading principles of managing arable lands, under a consider-able variety of circumstances, very little appears necessary tobe said on this head of inquiry. The state of culture of ara-ble lands may either call for, 1. The restoration of land tofertility which has been exhausted by overcropping ; 2. Themanagement of land which is extraordinarily rich by a longsuccession of pasture, and which is to be broken up for till-age ; 3. The best way of laying down land, which has beenlong under tillage, for permanent pasture ; or, 4. The im-provement of permanent pasture by a short course of tillage.

In the preceding sections of this part of the present chap-ter, almost every circumstance relative to these has been al-ready adverted to, as applicable to different descriptions ofsoil, and very little more can be attempted in this place thana short recapitulation of these, as generally applicable to theseveral enumerated states or intentions.

§ 1. For restoring overcropped lands to fertility, besidesthe employment of a thoroughly well-wrought summer-fallow,or an equally well conducted fallow crop of turnips, accord-ing to the nature of the soil, together with the application offit manure-, the land ought to be converted as soon as possi-ble into pasture, and so continued for such a number of yearsas the pasture remains abundant. When the goodness ofthe grass falls off materially, the sooner the land is again re-stored to tillage so much the better; as all experience evinces,that land acquires little fertility while under scanty and un-productive pasture.