On the Manuring of Grass Land. 221 



of producing very much, perhaps all, of what is now imported, 

 and therefore that the energy, skill, and capital which have 

 made our arable lands the most productive in the world, ought 

 to be applied to grass, and to render that the compeer of the 

 other. 



To prevent misunderstanding, it may be well to add that I do 

 not contemplate the abstraction of any of the manure now laid 

 iTponthe arable land, but an annual dressing of the grass in addi- 

 tion to what is now given to land in tillage. 



We shall facilitate our progress if we endeavour to realize what 

 is removed per acre from land in grass before attempting to 

 consider the best mode of supplying the loss, and, if possible, of 

 increasing the productive powers of nearly half the land of the 

 kingdom. 



Ordinary meadow, with fair management, will produce a ton 

 and a half of hay per acre at the first mowing, and a ton per 

 acre at the second mowing, and I shall assume this as the 

 average of production throughout. It is not meant, of course, 

 that this quantity is now produced, but that as this is a fair 

 average for land in a moderately good state of management, 

 so it might be generally the average were grass treated as it 

 should be. 



The ash of hay varies greatly : it is said by Johnston to be 

 from 50 to 100 lbs. per 1000 lbs. of hay in its ordinary state of 

 dryness. Taking the mean of these, 75 lbs., we find that the crop 

 of grass above mentioned carries from each acre 420 lbs. of in- 

 combustible matter, which remains as ash when the hay is burned. 

 Have farmers generally a correct notion of this, or even any notion 

 at all ? Do they bestow upon it the thought it deserves and must 

 have if they desire to bring their land to a maximum of produc- 

 tiveness? Were it thouglit about, we should never read such 

 disclosures as we do in the county reports in this Journal. Bear- 

 ing in mind that five yearly crops of grass remove from an acre 

 nearly a ton of mineral matter, wliich must be restored if the 

 land is to retain its productiveness (grass-land never knows 

 a fallow or the disintegrating effects of stirrings which expose 

 it to the atmosphere), we may inquire the composition of that 

 which is taken away. The following analyses of the ash will 

 show its composition sufficiently nearly for practical purpose, 

 though they are not to be taken as accurate representatives of 

 every kind of grass in every place. To exemplify possible dif- 

 ferences, I subjoin a very remarkable analysis, in which soda in 

 hay is to potash as 16 to 12-5. Taken as approximative merely, 

 they show practical farmers what they remove from the land in 

 a good crop of hay and aftergrass, and what they must restore to 

 it if they wish their land to be kept in heart: — 



