The Rev. Mr Dickson, late of \Vhittingham, the best practical writer on husbandry since the clays of Walter Blythe, seems to hold similar sentiments with those which we are now maintaining. In his Husbandry of the .dneients, a work which displays great genius and ac quaintance with the present and former state of rural affairs, after stating the predilection of the Romans for summer fallow, and describing the various ways in which it was executed, he says I am sensible, that the practice here insisted upon and recommended, in imitation of the ancients, is not agreeable to the most fashionable modes of husbandry. Our latest improvers, or rather our latest writers on agriculture, declare, that he is a slothful or ignorant farmer, who does not raise upon his fields at. least one crop every year. When land is very rich, and the farmer remarkably skilful and at tentive, and has it in his power, by a command of hands, to introduce the garden culture into his corn fields, it is rrAgihle, that the schemes proposed by these gentlemen may be prosecuted with success. But, taking our far mers and land as they are in fact, and considering how weeds still prevail in our fields, and how difficult it is, even for the most attentive farmers, to prevent their crops being hurt by them, frequent Fallowing, as the most proper method of destroying these enemies, can not as yet be too much recommended. When we have arrived at greater perfection in the several operations of agriculture, and brought our lands to a higher degree of fertility than at present, then, and indeed, in my opi nion, not till then, should we think of introducing schemes of pt•petual cropping." Much, however, as Britain is improved, still improvement is not so forward a, to sanction any scheme of perpetual cropping ; and were it more advanced, we question whether, in such a ariable climate as that of the British isles, perpetual cropping can ever be successfully exercised.
A mode of executing summer fallow, and procuring a crop of turnips in the same year, comes now to be no ticed. In this way the land may be completely cleaned. perhaps more so than by a bare fallow; but it is only on light dry soils, that such a mode of cleaning is eligible, or can be executed with advantage. The culture turnips will he noticed in a more particular manner, when we treat of leguminous crops.
The second object of tillage is to prepare the ground for receiving the seeds of plants cultivated by the hus bandman ; and here, in general, it may be remarked, that the object is most completely accomplished, when the ground is ploughed deep and equal, while the bot tom of the furrow immediately above the subsoil is per fectly loosened, and turned equally over with the part which constitutes the surface. In many places, these properties are altogether neglected, the ground being ploughed in a shallow way, while the bottom of the ploughed land remains something like the .teeth of a saw, having the under part of the furrow untouched, and consequently not removed by the action of the plough. While these things are suffered, the object of tillage is Duly partially gained. The food of plants (whatever it.
may be,) can only be imperfectly procured ; and the ground is drenched and injured by wetness ; these bridges. or pieces of land, which are not cut, preventing a descent of the moisture from above to the open fur rows left for carrying it off. Where the seed-bed is prepared by one ploughing, the greatest care ought to be used in having it closely and equally performed. When two are given, they should be in opposite direc tions, so that any firm land left in the first may be cut up in the second ploughing. It is not profitable to plough twice one way, if it can he safely avoided.
Another important point, towards procuring good tillage, is never to plough the land when in a wet state; because encouragement is thus given to the growth of weeds, while a sourness and adhesion is communicated to the ground, which is rarely got the better of till the operations of a summer fallow arc again repeated. The Roman writers are very particular against ploughing land, when wet. It is reprobated, in fact, by every one of them. Columella justly represents wet ploughing as most dangerous to the ground When we plough," says he, " we must. not touch wet land; for the fields, which are ploughed wet, cannot be touched for the whole year, and are fit neither for being sown, harrow ed, nor planted." Palladius gives a similar caution, and takes notice of the same bad consequences :—" It ought to be observed," says he, " that land ought not to be ploughed when wet ; for land, which receives the first ploughing when wet, cannot be touched for a whole season." From this passage, it appears, that it was reckoned particularly dangerous to give the fallow the first ploughing when in a wet state ; and that, when this was done, it was impossible, by any operations after wards, to bring it to a right tilth that seed-time. Pliny does no more than mention the received maxim :—"Do not," says he, ""touch wet land." Before we finish this chapter, it is proper to remark, that all soils ought not to be wrought, or ploughed, in one manner. Each kind has its particular and appro priate qualities ; and there lore, each requires a particu lar and appropriate mode of tillage. Ploughing, which is the capital operation of husbandry, ought, on these accounts, to be administered according to the nature of the soil which is to be operated upon, and not executed agreeably to one fixed and determined principle. On strong clays and loams, and on rich gravels and deep sands, the plough ought to go as deep as the cattle are able to work it ; whereas, on thin clays and barren sands, the benefit of deep ploughing is very questionable, especially when such are incumbent on a till-bottom, or where the subsoil is of a yellow ochre nature ; such, when turned up, being little better than poison to the surface, unless highly impregnated with alluvial com post, the effect of which expels the poisonous substance contained in this kind of subsoil, and gives a fertility to the whole mass, more decisive and permanent than would follow a heavy application of the best rotten dung.