448 The Agriculture of Worcestershire. 



up to the average of otlier counties. It is a great drawback to 

 heavy land farms that so many horses must be kept to work the 

 land in proper season, eating the food which would be more 

 profitably consumed by cattle or sheep. For this reason the 

 wet-land farmer may with advantage rear young horses, and sell 

 them off as they attain six years old. 



Pigs. 



The pigs have also undergone great improvement : compact 

 well-grown pigs, that keep themselves in good condition, taking 

 the place of the old raw-backed hogs, which had to be kept 

 to be two years old before being fed out ; but there is nothing 

 special to report on them that I am aware of. 



Pastuke Land. 



Dr. Nash, three-quarters of a century ago, mentions that the 

 farmer found it pay him better to put his muck on the pasture 

 than on the tillage, and to this view we shall again no doubt 

 return. Meat, butter, and cheese will no doubt alvvajs maintain 

 a paying price, and much of the meadow in the county being 

 dairy and feeding land, it will gradually work itself right, for 

 if, by dressing, two tons of hay can be grown instead of one, it 

 necessarily follows that two beasts may be kept instead of one. 



Very much of the upland meadow is of inferior quality, and 

 in many instances it is being converted into tillage, though 

 this does not well suit the present time. It does not seem to 

 answer well to lay land down to permanent pasture on some of 

 the heavier soils, for after the artificial grasses die out, it takes 

 years to get anything like a good turf. Perhaps one of the 

 reasons of failure is that the work is not properly done. 



The meadows liable to be flooded, on the other hand, are gene- 

 rally very good, especially those lying near the River Avon. 

 Drainage on meadow land is only required for the removal of 

 stagnant water, and sometimes harm is done by over draining. 

 I think the deeper meadow land is drained the better, provided 

 the drains draw, but after this has been effected many of 

 the coarser and water grasses will be destroyed ; therefore it 

 is necessary to give an ample seeding of permanent grass seeds, 

 combined with a good dressing of bone or grass manure, not 

 merely to supply every year a small quantity for the use of the 

 then growing plant, but a liberal dressing of say half-a-ton per 

 acre. This will so induce the growth of the fresh grasses and 

 clover that another dressing will not be required for ten or twelve 

 years. Lime may also be used with advantage on the Old and 

 New Red Sandstone formations. 



The rental of the meadow land varies from 205. to 100s. 



