114 ON THE .MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS IN ENGLAND. 



Meadow foxtail, . 

 Eougli cocksfoot, 

 Hard fescue. 

 Tall meadow fescue, . 

 Meadow fescue, . 

 Italian ryegrass, 

 Perennial ryegrass 

 Timothy or catstail, . 



These amount to 50 lbs. in all, and the cost per acre was 31s. 

 We were over the farm along with the respected owner and Mr 

 Eobinson, his steward, in the beginning of i^ngust 1874, about six 

 weeks after the hay was carried from the said field ; it was then 

 grazed by young stock. It had a pretty fair plant, not so close as 

 could be wished, but its verdure contrasted favourably with the old 

 grass fields on the estate. It will be remembered that 1874 was a 

 dry and hot season; during the preceding three months of May, 

 June, and July only 2 '2 9 inches of rain fell in this locality, where 

 the mean annual rainfall is 23 inches. Over the old grass fields 

 of this farm, which extend to 500 acres, there was not one-third 

 of the food on them that we saw in the precediug summer, and 

 several fields in good seasons fatten an ox to the acre. Again, 

 this year the said field was mowed for hay, and when we saw it 

 in August the aftermath was strong, and the plants were much 

 thicker. The red clover and the Italian ryegrass stood a foot 

 high, the timothy and cocksfoot were not much less, and the 

 fescues were pretty conspicuous ; but there was still a patchiness 

 about the field that made it look irregular. We should have 

 said that it had a top-dressing of compost last January, and 

 some renovating seeds. Lime was mixed with mould, that is, 

 ditch scourings, four or five loads to one of lime, and from ten to 

 twelve loads were applied to the acre. The hay was a poor crop 

 last year, but this year the yield was little short of two tojis an 

 acre. 



Those who have had experience in laying down land to seeds, 

 express themselves well pleased wdth this Westoning experiment, 

 and say that the field, which was worth L.2 an acre originally, 

 will shortly be good value for L.3 ; but even that, on land that 

 grows 50 bushels an acre of wheat when in tillage, is not very 

 encouraging. We have seen fields that have been laid down by 

 the inoculating process ; but we suspect that, at the present 

 price of labour, that plan would be a worse success. It simply 

 consists in transplanting ; part of ground under old turf is pared, 

 carted, and cut into small pieces, and replaced with the green 

 side up in the field which has been prepared for it. The pieces 

 are placed in plots about one to the square foot, and pressed 

 home with the foot ; but they do not cover the half of the 

 surface. Some seeds are also sown, and in the com'se of a year or 

 two, the herbage of the turfy sods, with the aid of the seeds, 



