Management of Grass Land. 255 



with cattle, beginning for the first year or two with young stock, 

 until the turf is close and strong enough to bear the treading of 

 heavy cattle. If farmyard manure is not to be harl, 3 cwt. of best 

 Peruvian guano per acre will prove a tolerable substitute, though 

 by no means equal to the former. For some years a newlv-laid 

 pasture will, unless the land be of ver]/ superior quality, require 

 assistance from time to time to keep it in an improving state ; 

 an occasional dressing of farmyard-manure is, of course, the best, 

 but as this is rarely obtainable in sufficient quantity, it must be 

 eked out by other means. One of the cheapest and most effective 

 plans is to employ an old man with a donkey-cart to go round the 

 pastures collecting the droppings of the cattle and making them 

 into compost with road-scrap uigs, ditch-cleanings, &c. : when 

 these sources fail, the droppings must be mixed with ordinary soil, 

 avoiding sand, gravel, and lime. If a manure-collector be once 

 appointed, numerous odds and ends of fertilizing substances will 

 be found available which would individually be worth little, and 

 which are now wasted because the regular staff of the farm are all 

 engaged, and to take off one horse and man would often stop a 

 plough or weaken a gang of labourers so as materially to interfere 

 with more important operations. But the collection of manure 

 should be incessant. The droppings of horses and cattle, especially 

 if collected fresh, form a very important source of compost, and the 

 improvement to the pasture is twofold : 1st, in the saving of that 

 which is otherwise to a great extent wasted ; 2nd]y, by the cleansing 

 of the pasture and the much more uniform grazing of the cattle 

 when the droppings are not allowed to remain and produce coarse 

 tufts for some months after. In collecting materials for compost, it 

 should be borne in mind that all plants contain more or less of the 

 elements required for the growth of the grasses, and that thistles 

 and other succulent weeds, if mown and covered with soil whilst 

 still fresh and sappy, materially assist in improving the heap, 

 both by the fertilizing elements which they contain and also by 

 the fermentation which they induce. This fermeiitation mellows 

 and disintegrates the soil, and also fdls its minute pores with gase- 

 ous matters, the result of the decomposition of tlie vegetable and 

 animal compounds of which the compost should be partially com- 

 posed. All compost should be turned and well mixed, once at least. 

 The time that it should be left before and after turning will depend 

 entirely on tlie materials of which it is composed. Asa general 

 rule, however, it may be assumed that the droppings of cattle, mixed 

 witli road-s( rapings, will be ready for use during the winter after 

 their collection ; but if rougher materials be used, twelve months 

 will probably be required to bring tlie heap into the friable state 

 which is desirable. I attach particular importance to the collec- 

 tion of vefjetahle mould for top-dressing newly-laid grass-land : it 



