330 On Ridge-and-Furroio Pasture Land. 



moved than the eye leads one to suppose. The eye, measuring- 

 always from the bed of the farrow to the crown of the ridge, sees 

 the evil double. Six inches of soil, moved from the one space 

 and laid on the other, making a foot of perpendicular height 

 between the two, constitutes a high ridge. Obvious as this is, 

 the illusion is constantly recurring out of doors ; and it is not 

 until the spade begins its work, and every spadeful does its 

 double office at one cast, sinking the high and raising the low as 

 it falls, tliat the exaggeration is practically detected. This would 

 apply, if even all the ridges were operated on at once ; but as 

 this would smother the grass in the furrows, the labour is again 

 subdivided by taking only the alternate ridges, and casting half 

 the soil on either side ; and again still farther, when by taking 

 every fourth ridge only, the furrow is insensibly raised by repeated 

 top-dressings, averaging only an inch and a half of soil each year, 

 and at the end of four years still amounting to only half the depth 

 of that difference of altitude that originally met the eye. But 

 whilst the action on the furrows is thus gradual, each ridge when 

 done, as its turn comes, is done for ever, being reduced at once 

 to the medium level, which the furrows have not yet reached. 

 Yet when all tlie work is completed, the spade has been employed 

 only upon half the land ; the other half having done itself, so to 

 speak, by the fall of every spadeful taken up. 



Against this, however, is to be put the digging of the second 

 layer of soil left upon the ridge after removal of its surplus. But 

 any one who has seen the after effect of this under-digging upon 

 the herbage will admit that this part of the process, any more 

 than the top-dressing bestowed u])on the furrows, is not to be 

 charged as unproductive labour. I remember seeing some years 

 ago the report of an experiment in the actual paring, under- 

 digging, and replacing of some old turf, in which the process, 

 expensive as it must of necessity have been, was described as 

 repaying the outlay. This I should doubt, though from experi- 

 ence I can bear full witness to the extraordinary improvement it 

 produces both in the quantity and quality of the grass. Still the 

 testimony is good, valeat quantum, in relief of the incidental 

 charge which the present case involves for the same operation 

 upon one fourth or (in the latter mode described) one eighth of 

 the land each year. 



The bill of costs stands thus : — ■ £ s d 



Parin;^ and rolling back turf ou one quarter of an acre, and 



rolling again into place 12 6 



Ploughing top-soil, ditto (quarter acre) 2 6 



Throwing forward top-soil, digging second soil, and casting 



into adjacent furrows (ditto) 15 0. 



Total cost, 1st year £1 10 



