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OS THE AKA1JJLE LAKH

§ 2. Manuring —Manure is never applied, in the well ma-naged districts ot Scotland , to the barley crop, except in sofar as the land may be said to be manured, by consuming thepreceding crop of turnips on the ground by means of sheep.In districts near the sea, where sea-weed is abundant, thatvaluable manure is sometimes applied to the barley crop af-ter it is above ground, more especially where turnips have beendrawn and consumed elsewhere ; but no other top-dressing iscustomary in Scotland . In the higher parts of the country,lands that have undergone a summer fallow, are sometimesmanured and sown with barley, or rather with big or bear;but commonly dung is given in the first place for rearing acrop of turnips, after which manure is not necessary.

According to the old husbandry of Scotland , when the bestof the home lands or iiifields , were under a continual courseof cropping, the whole farm manure was applied to one-thirdof the infield for a crop of barley. This break received threeor more ploughings, or a kind of bastard spring fallow, stillknown in some parts of England by the corrupted term pin-J'allow. The other two breaks of the infield were either un-der oats or peas. As in this antiquated system of husban-dry, the outfield never had any manure, and its whole strawproduce contributed towards the dunghill, it was easy to givean ample dressing yearly to a third of the infield. This prac-tice has been entirely given up in the arable districts, and thedistinction of outfield and infield is now abolished. In thehighland districts and Scotch Isles, this system still prevails,though very judicious measures have been adopted for sub-stituting the culture of turnips and clover in its place. Forthis most desirable purpose, the Highland Society of Scot-land, a most valuable auxiliary to the Board of Agriculture,is in use to give yearly premiums, for the greatest extent ofground under drilled turnips and sown grasses in these dis-tricts.

§ 3. Seed ]>roccss _It was mentioned that barley is gene-

rally sown as quickly as possible alter the land is ploughed,