OiS THE MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS IN ENGLAND. 117 



We think the foregoing particulars throw some light on the 

 subject of this paper. The analysis of the Aylesbury soil shows 

 the value of organic matter in the production of herbaceous and 

 gramineous plants, which suggests one way in which the soil may 

 be treated to fit it more for their growth ; whereas the other 

 soil, which has now been seven or eight years down, looks 

 poverty-stricken still. The lime, it should be observed, lies in 

 an unavailable state, and other fertilising ingredients, it will be 

 seen, are present in limited quantity ; and though it holds a 

 respectable ([uantity of organic matter, it is all too scanty to 

 neutralise the obstinacy of the clay. About twelve years ago we 

 carried out an experiment on a farm owned by us which we think 

 illustrates this matter pretty well. The field had a liglit, friable, 

 and thin soil, overlying trap rock ; it had been in grass for two 

 years, and it was situated in a district rather noted for leaky 

 skies. In one field at a little distance we had a deep and large 

 deposit of black undecomposed moss. This we digged away and 

 mixed with hot lime, one cart load of lime to ten of moss. This 

 was turned over twice, and allowed to lie for two years, for it 

 was slow in decomposing. It M^as then applied as a top-dress- 

 ing to the pasture field in the month of August, and laid on two 

 inches deep. Some of our good neighbours began quietly to ques- 

 tion our sanity, and pronounced that the last of our grassy turf had 

 been seen. The weather was auspicious, and there came up the 

 finest, and tliickest mat of grass ever seen, which more than re- 

 couped us for the temporary deprivation of pasture. The park 

 should have remained in pasture, but according to the then 

 arrangement of the farm, it was ploughed for oats in January 

 following, and fine crops of oats, roots, and oats with seeds 

 followed in successive years. The seeds (consisting of H 

 bushels of perennial ryegrass, 4 lbs. of red and 2 lbs. of white 

 clover) were mowed ; that is, on the fourth year after the dress- 

 ing, and though hay was a moderate price (about L.4 a ton if our 

 recollection be right), it commanded L.15 an acre, having been 

 sold by auction in the field ricks. In tliis we have another in- 

 stance of how readily grasses respond to the enriching power of 



sand ; for silica, with a few oiitstandiiig exeeptions, coinprises three-fourths of the 

 substances of all soils, and indeed three-fourths of the great globe itself. Tlie 

 great constituents of soils in popular and commonplace names, are sand, clay, 

 iron-oxides, lime, and tlie remains of vegetable and animal matter in a decom- 

 posed state, or what is often called mould. Now it will be observed that writers 

 on practical agriculture omit the iron, and here in the Aylesbury analysis, as in 

 most others, it is ])resent to the extent of 6'70 per cent. A more complete classi- 

 fication would therefore be according to their generic names, and which we place 

 in the order of their abundance as follows : — 1st, arenaceous ; 2d, calcareous ; 3d, 

 ferruginous ; 4th, argillaceous ; and 5th, organic matter. The jiroperties of 

 ferruginous soils are little less marked than the distinguishing characters of the 

 other leading soils, and its presence is readily recognised by the eye, as imparting 

 a red or yellow colour to soils. 



