234 On the Blamiring of Grass Land. 



that if we intend to have our crop of the most value, we must 

 grow it by the middle of June. Does not this also plead for an 

 early application of manure ? Can long dung, applied as we see 

 it often m March and even in April, be washed in and decomposed 

 and taken up so as to grow a crop by the rniddle of June ? Would 

 it not be far more likely to accomplish its object if applied between 

 November and January ? Theory assures me that it would, and 

 the best practice shows that theory is right. The grass-land of 

 Middlesex is probably the best managed in the world, and the 

 early manuring and early mowing of the present day must be 

 familiar to all observant persons who have lived in or travelled 

 to London through the county. This practice is no novelty. It 

 existed fifty years ago, and is described by Middleton : — 



" After the hay has been removed from the meadows, some of the farmers of 

 this county study the state of the atmosphere, and if appearances indicate ap- 

 proachinp; rain, they lay on some of the land from which the hay has just been 

 carried, the duug of neat cattle and such other manure as happens to be re- 

 duced so much as to admit of being spread with a shovel, and no other. On 

 the contrary, when the barometer does not bespeak, with some degree of cer- 

 tainty, a pretty heavy fall of rain, the decomposed manure, as well as all the 

 rest, is allowed to remain in the dunghills till the end of September, at which 

 time it is applied, while the soil is sufficiently dry to bear the drawing of 

 loaded carts without injury, and when the heat of the daj' is so moderated as 

 not to exhale the volatile parts of the dung." * 



The first crop of hay for cows, he says, is usually mown early in 

 May, that for horses three or four weeks later.f Mr. Horsfall 

 applies his manure " as soon as the ground is clear," which I 

 suppose will be early in December, "and mows in a cold late 

 district from the 20rh to the 30th of June." i 



Having mentioned, perhaps I ought to express an opinion upon, 

 this summer manuring. My conviction is that it should be 

 avoided very carefully, as being but little better than wasting 

 manure. Rather than apply manure (unless liquid) in summer, 

 I would sustain the loss incurred by keeping, and apply it after 

 the stock were removed in autumn. It is remarkable that in late 

 districts, where the hay-crop is generally a miserable one and 

 not mown till far into July, the application of a sprinkling of 

 dung after mowing is not uncommon. Where this is the case, I 

 have observed a dwarfing of the grasses as compared with neigh- 

 bouring fields of the same quality, but manured in winder ; and in 

 one case I recollect applying a special manure with my own hands 

 in July in an important experiment, and I there observed a 

 dwarfing of the grass, which remains until this day. '^I'he same 

 manure, applied to parts of the same plot in early spring, pro- 

 duced considerable luxuriance. 



* ' View of the Agriculture of Middlesex.' 2nd edit,, p. 286. 



t P. 288. 



X Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, vol. xviii. pp. 181-2. 



