328 On Ridge-and- Furrow Pasture Land. 



(by which nature had before striv^en for a kind of give-and-take 

 compensation of too wet and too dry) is gone ; the crown of the 

 ridge is isolated, raised out of reach of the re-active moisture from 

 beh)\v, that supports the level herbage of a meadow in long 

 droughts, and confirms the benefit of the draining-tile under a 

 level surface by the increased ' capillation ' set up in the soil. 

 This, I repeat, is lost, and worse than lost, upon the convexities 

 presented by the ridge-and-furrow. 



Tlie experience of this evil, now well-established, in the 

 quarter I speak of, has led me to try several methods of levelling 

 the surface of such lands — I mean, of course, without breaking 

 up ; and I am tempted to submit to you a mode of doing this 

 which I have been led to, as the most efficacious and economical 

 I can discover, and which has the advantage of greatly improving 

 both the amount of pasture and its dairying qualities. To some 

 it may not be new — it is difficult in agriculture to find anything 

 that is so; but it is by no means difficult to name many things 

 that are " not new " and " not bad," which are nevertheless 

 unknown and unadopted where they are most wanted ; and at 

 least I can say that, simple as the method is I shall try to describe, 

 I have never seen it attempted elsewhere ; and even by some 

 who have all their lives been longing to level park land and 

 pasture fields that they have regai'ded as an eyesore in their ridge- 

 and-furrow outline, the cure has been considered hopeless without 

 either enormous expense or the fatal recourse to breaking up. 



The plan is this : — Take a common broad-shared ridging-up 

 plough, without the mould-boards on either side (one of Bentall's 

 answers the purpose very well) ; let the horses be led carefully 

 along the centre of every alternate ridge, splitting and slightly 

 under-paring, without turning, the turf on the crown. Tlien, by 

 hand-work, let the turf be rolled over (in widths of about two feet 

 each) towards the furrow on either side, to a point a little beyond 

 the shoulder* of the ridge, so as to expose the soil on the upper 

 half of the ridge. Plough this soil, opening out a furrow in the' 

 centre, and gathering towards it, as is done in the common 

 " gathering up " for wheat-sowing. Then, by spade-work, throw 

 out the soil thus loosened in equal portions upon the adjacent 

 furrows right and left. Dig the second soil (it is not subsoil in 

 the true sense of the word, but the original top-soil f of that place), 

 cutting it tolerably fine, and roll back the turf upon it. Bear 

 always in mind that this is only done upon each alternate ridge : 

 but tfiat the soil thus thrown out and distributed will lie upon 

 eveinj furrow, which will thus receive upon their surfaces a dress- 



* The point equidistant from the crown of the ridge and the bed of the furroAT. 

 t I prefer throwing tliis into the furrows, casting foru-ard the top soil. 



