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Vol. I.
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526

ON THE ARABLE LAND

in the market is exceedingly fluctuating, insomuch that thiscrop is by no means so steadily in demand as other articlesof farm produce, being sometimes hardly saleable, more es-pecially when oats are cheap. On the other hand, when oatsare dear, beans are sure to be in demand, and to bring agood price; in the former case being perhaps as low as 4 s.the bushel, and in the latter as high as 8 s. or more, inde-pendent of years of scarcity.

The stubbles are not applied to any particular use, exceptthat the live-stock of the farm, cattle and horses, are allowedto pick up what they can get, which is very little indeed onland that has been properly cultivated; more especially as thegleaners gather up all dropt pods and even single beans, andthat the land has generally to be ploughed for the succeedingwheat crop immediately on removing the beans. It is a me-lancholy truth, however, that bean stubbles are often ap-parently excellent pastures, in consequence of the most repre-liensibly negligent cultivation of the land, by growing beansin a matted bed of couch and other disgraceful weeds. Insome districts, premiums are given for instances of superiorcultivation ; yet perhaps the consequences of bad husbandly,by inferiority of produce, may be a sufficient punishment initself, and on high rented land must inevitably tend to ruinthose concerned, or at least to injure them in the most seri-ous manner.

SECT. VI.

OF l’F.AS.

§ 1. Soil and preparatioti .—Peas follow variously in the sys-tem of rotation, as formerly mentioned, being chiefly adaptedfor protracted rotations on soils which are not of sufficientdepth for beans, such as light turnip soil, or thin weak clays.