Farming of Leicestershire. 33? 



behind tlic rest of the world. What it is now we have in the 

 foreo^oing pages endeavoured fairly to pourtraj, and prefer to let 

 the facts adduced speak for themselves. 



The improvements effected afford a good index to those yet 

 required. Much is wanted in the matter of farm-buildings, the 

 improvement of old ones, the addition of new, and the adoption 

 of the principle of covered yards. We know that this latter will 

 by many be regarded as a questionable improvement, but since 

 space forbids us arguing the matter, we must leave it to be 

 decided by that great arbiter — Time. 



Many a wet, spongy, hassocky, ant-hill-covered pasture calls 

 aloud for drainage, and the removal of those unsightly, unprofit- 

 able excrescences, the ant-hills. 



Much second-rate upland grass-land demands help in the shape 

 of 4O5. or 5O5. worth of manure per acre, and those who have 

 studied the accommodating nature of the grass plants will freely 

 endorse the assertion that for such indulgence the returns to the 

 yer contra side of the balance-sheet will be most satisfactory. 



With the inferior or third-rate grass we approach tender 

 ground. Where arable, as subsidiary to grass farms, is not in 

 sufficient quantity, by all means break up — and on many farms 

 this is an improvement imperatively wanted — but when one- 

 third in arable is obtained, we would say, hold. Many are of 

 opinion that poor grass, such as seen on some of the clay-soils of 

 the county, cannot be remuneratively improved, and they would 

 break up indiscriminately. We dissent in toto from this view, 

 though the fact that grass will pay, and pay much better for manure 

 applied, than corn at its present selling price, is as yet recognised 

 by a limited number of the agriculturists of the country. Under 

 ordinary management, when poor grass is broken up, it speedily 

 degenerates to poor arable — in the present day the least desirable 

 of all land, more especially if, like most of the poor land of 

 Leicestershire, it be of the description which Lord Berners cha- 

 racterizes as "loving land.'' 



Our advice would be, — Drain, manure, and utilize the turf you 

 have ; second and assist, but do not go against, the efforts of 

 Nature, who designed such soils for grass, and, in the long run, 

 will assert her supremacy and prove him a bungler who converts 

 it to tillajre. 



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