118 ON THE MAXAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS IN ENGLAND. 



organic matter, four years after its application ; but indeed all 

 the crops were much above an average. 



In laying down to grass, clays offer the greatest difficulty in 

 securing a close turf. Even when well manured, cleaned, and 

 pulverised, a good braird may not be got, and afterwards comes 

 the trying time, two and three years after the seeds were sown. 

 The herbage, especially on secondary and inferior soils, becomes 

 poor, weak, and mossy, and the soil itself has the appearance of 

 losing condition. Improving farmers who wish to acquire a 

 maximum of produce find themselves shut up to the use of 

 enrichments to stimulate and thicken the plants, and the only 

 possible way is to feed the grass on the top, as in our own experi- 

 ment, and that of Westoning already described. Court-yard dung, 

 lime, bones, guano, nitrate of soda, and ammoniacal manures, are 

 the main applications in use. The plan of sujiplementing the 

 grass keep by cake has become pretty common, and farmers are 

 thereby enabled to reduce the bill for artificial manures consider- 

 ably. We have long thought that it would be an advantage to 

 stir the soil of the old grass land, and the stiff soils of these 

 recently laid down by a sulj-turf plough. We think the hard 

 and consolidated soil might be loosened and pulverised without 

 material interference with the surface sward. No doubt the soil 

 would revert in a short time to its old compressed condition ; but 

 the process would doubtless induce chemical action, and great 

 facilities would be afforded for the ramification of the roots of 

 the plants. There would by this act of husbandry be adequate 

 provision for the circulation of air and water, perhaps any excess 

 of space would in a short time cure itself, and the stages of 

 change would induce that right medium, which has been styled 

 the greatest density of soil pervious to the roots, that brings 

 the largest quantity of food near the plant. 



Much as is the value of the manure of sheep, and the benefit 

 it would confer on the land, depasturing with sheep on recently 

 laid down land is universally rejected. This is done on the plea 

 that sheep eat out the centre of the best grasses, thus leaving 

 rough grasses and making space for them to send up their seed 

 stems, which deteriorates the pasture very much. On a light 

 grassy soil our experience of sheep was rather favourable ; for 

 though they may have gnawed out the sweetest grasses, there 

 came up a very close sward in the course of one year, which 

 proved the finest pasture v»^e ever had. We cannot help think- 

 ing that the common practice of mowing the fields in the first 

 two years is a blunder. There is often a good deal of underly- 

 ing truth in the sayings of our ancestors, and there are two of 

 them that occur to our memory. Tlie one is that the scythe is 

 the greatest robber which comes on the farm ; and the other is 

 almost identical, namely, that ploughing is better than unlimited 



