Flax, with clue attention, will repay its cultivation ; but, generally speaking, in this country the same land and manure may be more conveniently and profitably applied. Two bushels an acre is the re quisite quantity of seed, and the land, if it be not particularly rich by nature, must be rendered so by art, must be worked to a fine surface, and be kept perfectly free from weeds.
The preparation for rape-seed is the same which is necessary for that of tur nips. It is a crop subject to great injury, -and extremely uncertain. Di the con quered countries in the north of France, the practice is to sow it in a seed bed for transplantation, which is begun in Octo ber, and if there be nu frost in November, is continued through that month, when the plants are about two feet long. Were this operation to take place earher, they would be more secure from the frost Dibbling is employed for the puipose, and the plants are set at aboutthe distance of eighteen inches by ten. In a favourable year the profit is considerable, as indeed it ought to be, to compensate for the fre quent and inevitable failure attendingthis cultivation. An indispensable point, in regard to this article, is to catch at oppor tunities of fine weather, for the purpose of reaping and threshing, which must be done in immediate succession. In reaping, extreme care is requisite, to prevent the shedding of the seed. Both in lifting it froin the ground and conveying it to the barn floor, the utmost attention must be applied. As rain, at this critical period, may be considered nearly fatal to this produce, celerity of operation is of the first consequence, and as many assistants as possible should be procured, and not a moment of fine weather should be suffer ed to pass unimproved.
The cultivation of hops demands a greater capital than that of any other plant. The cost of the first y ear's prepa ration and planting will amount to about eighty pounds per acre, and the subse quent annual expense will be little less thin half that sum, and after all the ex pense, preparation, and attention, which may bc employed, no crop is more preca nous. The serious consideration of a farmer is demanded, before he resolves to introduce this plant where it has not been usually cultk ated. And not only the cir ctunstances already mentioned, but that of the accessibility or distance of manure, (for which the largest quantities are call ed for by hops,) and the fact, that a small solitary hop ground seldom thrives like those which cover a large extent of coun try, from whatever cause this may pro ceed, should be fully weighed. Ruin may easily follow the want of adverting to these and other considerations, and they cannot therefore be too strongly impress ed on the sanguine adventurer. A flat deep bog, in a sheltered situation, makes an excellenthop soil, constituting,indecd, a natural dung-hill. For the application of such land to bops, the chances are fa vourable. The best preparation for this plant, when such a spot as this does not occur, is made by two successive crops of turnips or cabbages, fed off by sheep, early enough for the ploughing and plant ing in March. The plants should be in serted in rows, at eight feet distance from each other, attd about six feet from hill to bill. Four fresh cuttings should be
planted in each spot which is to fiirm a hill. In April they should be poled, an operation requiring that critical accuracy, which, depending on changeable and ca sual circumstances, can be derived only from experience. The binds must next be tied to the poles. The superfluous vines must be pruned about midsummer, and are useful food for cows. Septem ber is the month for pulling them. But the management of hops is a subject most operose and delicate, requiring extreme experience, attention, and dexterity ; and the details of which would, if extended only equally to its importance, occupy bulky- olumes.
Course of Crops.
No subject of g-rcater importance has been treated by modern writers on hus bandry, than the succession of crops. Be fore the present reign, although a consi derable number of writers on agriculture existed, this topic was little treated, and by many scarcely adverted to. It has at length obtained something approaching to that attention which it merits. The main principles upon which all practices on this subject proceed are, that some crops arc more exhausting than others : that some, although of a N ery impoverish ing character, yet, by being consumed on the farm, return to it as much as they de ducted originally from it, and, perhaps, even niore, that some admit profitable till age and accurate cleaning, during their growth; while by others the land is almost unavoidably rendered foul by weeds, is exhausted without return, and, when they are applied in succession, willbe extreme ly- and fatally impoverished. By experi ence, much is found to depend on a cer tain arrangement of crops of these differ ent and opposite characters; and in no one circumstance is the theory or prac tice of husbandry, in the present day, so materially advanced as in relation to this subject. Unless this department be well understood, the efforts of the farmer in nthers are eith cr abortive or injurious. An important difference is obsemble be tween cultniferous ancl mi nous plants, or those which are cultivated for their seed, and such as are raised for their roots. The former bind the soil, while the latter uniformly give it openness and freedom. The former also are decidedly more exhausting, though unquestionably in themselves the most profitable. No soil can bear them in long and uninter rnpted succession. And, on the other hand, without the interposition of them among leguminous crops, the soil in which the latter grow would by' their loos ening quality become deficient in the tena city which is necessary for vegetation. Some crops are rendered valuable chiefly from their preparation for others, that are more valuable, of a different kind. The husbandmen of a former age sowed frequently in succession that species of grain which they wished to possess abun dantly ; whereas, by this practice their object was often, at length, completely defeated. And if wheat, oats, or barley, were for a certain period sown in the same field, die land would eventually, and that in no long. time, scarcely' return • the seed which was put into it.