378 Improvement of Grass-land on the 



That the most unpromising surface may be improved success- 

 fully, and rendered thereby capable of supporting an increased 

 quantity and higher quality of stock, we have irresistible evidence 

 in the experience of Mr. Edmund Ruck, at Braydon in Wiltshire, 

 which experience it is our object in the following paper to bring 

 before the public, as an encouraging instance of what may be 

 done by pluck and judgment in a district looked v;pon as one of 

 the most unproductive in England : naturally so poor and wet 

 tliat it was a common remark " that Braydon would rot a goose." 



We enjoy special opportunities for qualifying ourselves for 

 our task, from the fact that we have repeatedly inspected the farm 

 from the very first, and could form a tolerably correct estimate 

 of the progress made from year to jear. Our design is to give 

 a simple statement of what we have seen ; and, " since seeing 

 is believing," we recommend any one who doubts, or who, 

 stirred with curiosity, may wish for a closer inspection, to visit 

 the spot, where we feel confident Mr. Ruck will be pleased to 

 see any such person ; and here, by remarking the striking con- 

 trast offered by adjoining farms and fields, the visitor may still, 

 as it were, compare the present with the past. We write in the 

 liope that others who may occupy grass-land on a strong soil will 

 be induced to start improvement. There are thousands of acres 

 in Braydon and elsewhere ver}" similar in character to the Manor 

 Farm, which still present that starved, drowned appearance for 

 which such soils are noted. Before we enter into details, it may 

 be advisable to give our readers an idea where Braydon is, and 

 what it is. 



The traveller by the Great Western Railway, on his way from 

 Swindon to Gloucester, passes through one end of it between 

 Purton and Minety, whilst it stretches away to his right nearly as 

 far as Cricklade. It consists principally of a low-lying tract of 

 Tery wet tenacious soil, belonging to the Oxford Clay series. 

 Oxford clay, when unmixed with tliluvial sands or gravel, gene- 

 rally produces yellowish, dead-looking, very tenacious, wet, and 

 barren soils, difficult and expensive to work, which, in their 

 natural state, exhibit a few scrubby oaks and high straggling 

 fences. The very tone and colouring of the pastures is chilling, 

 owing to the cold blue of the Hardhead which with the Devil's 

 Scabious occupies the ground, to the exclusion of better grasses. 

 Live stock look only half alive, stunted and ill-shapen, and the 

 nature of the premises further indicates a low condition of 

 farming. 



Braydon was originally a royal forest, though few of the old 

 trees remain to tell the tale. There are two, however, still 

 standing near Purton, which may have witnessed many a royal 

 meetinor. 



