Breaking vp Pastures. 17 



sufficient reason for their opposition. Nearly every Airmer could 

 point to fields that he once knew as poor pasture ; then as heavy 

 corn-bearing^ land for a few years, and later and ever since as 

 poor, very poor arable land, and " he knows the reason why." 

 Surely, then, it is time that exhaustive systems were abandoned, 

 and more liberal and renovating- methods established in their stead. 



The question of breaking up pasture, in its broader bearings, 

 not only affects the interests of the landlord, the tenant, and the 

 labourer, but enters so deeply into the general supply of food, and 

 field for the employment of labour, that it more or less con- 

 cerns the whole community. He who recognizes the wisdom of 

 him who wrote that "The profit of the earth is for all : the king 

 himself is served by the field,"* will feel the national importance 

 of this subject. 



No one, however, would advise the indiscriminate breaking 

 up of pasture-land ; there is much rich grazing-ground and 

 whole districts in the dairy counties that ought to continue as 

 they are ; but, on the other hand, there is much grass-land that 

 has always been unsuited for pasture, its character being such 

 that it could not by ordinary means be made very productive either 

 to the dairyman or grazier. This inferior land (unless rendered 

 unfit by climate, altitude, heaviness of soil, or other peculiarity) 

 would, if brought into cultivation, under fair restrictions and 

 a well-regulated course of cropping, be more profitable to all 

 parties concerned than it is at present. 



On the other hand, there is much old cultivated land that 

 would be benefited and renovated if laid to grass for a few years ; 

 so that on many farms for every field broken up another of equal 

 extent might be devoted to pasture. Our root-crops would at 

 all events be benefited by the exchange if, as seems likely, the 

 difficulty which has arisen of late years of securing a good growth 

 of turnips has been caused by the repetition of these crops on the 

 same land. Two fields in my o\Vn occupation which once grew 

 immense crops of swedes, now, Avith more liberal treatment in 

 manure, tScc,, are most precarious in their yield. The swedes 

 when planted make a good start, and a stranger would suppose 

 them to be quite secure ; but, as the summer advances, decay 

 begins at the roots, the leaves droop, and the plants become 

 entirely rotten when they have reached the size of a hen's egg. 

 Would not new land be a remedy for these and innumerable 

 other cases of a similar kind ? 



Little Coxwell, Faringdon. 



* Eccles. V. 9. 



VOL. XXVI. 



