444

ON THE ARABLE LANU

§ 4. Very little remains to be said, as to the rotations bywhich lands, long under pasture, are to be improved, by tem-porary tillage, for being again laid down to permanent pas-ture. After being broken up in one or other of the ways al-ready mentioned, they must be thoroughly cleaned by meansof fallow or turnips, enriched by manure, either muck or cal-careous, or both, and laid down again to grass in the bestpossible condition. In one instance, the reporter knows of alarge field of old pasture, having been broken up for improve-ment, which was completely fallowed for two successive years,and having been thoroughly limed and dunged, was laid downagain to grass along with the immediately succeeding crop.This instance cannot be considered as capable of general imi-tation, the quantity of muck required on that occasion, havingstarved the rest of the farm with which it was connected forseveral years, though the field, so treated, might certainly•have been restored to good grass, without committing anyinjury upon its neighbours. It is well known that lands, whichhave been long under pasture, will carry much finer herbage,when restored to that state, after undergoing two courses ofa rotation, and having been twice under a summer-fallow, orfallow crop.

SECT. VIII.

.MISCELLANEOUS CIRCUMSTANCES;

Having in the foregoing sections treated of the principalcrops that arc grown on farms, and the rotations which oughtto be respectively prosecuted, it may now be proper to addsome observations regarding certain crops, as potatoes, tares,and flax, which, though forming essential portions of thecultivated crops on most farms, do not occupy any full divi-sions or breaks in their regular rotations. The particular