114 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



aspect of the practice. The carting of heaiy bulks of manure 

 is avoided, and the land at once has the benefit of the 

 droppings. When manure is stacked in heaps, or is allowed 

 to he in the farmyard, some of its most fertihsing constituents 

 drain away or are dissipated in the atmosphere. It will also be 

 evident that to graze a pasture by day and fold on the arable 

 at night is a very ingenious device for ruining grass land. 

 Even when sheep are helped with cake, it is no sufficient 

 compensation for their absence during twelve out of the 

 twenty-four hours. 



A further means of deteriorating gi'ass land is the practice 

 of allowing pastures reserved especially for horned cattle to 

 be overstocked. When an ox-pasture is eaten down so bare as 

 to allow the roots of the more succulent grasses to become 

 scorched, it is a serious injury, not only for that year's feed, 

 but for subsequent seasons. In one instance, during a hot 

 summer I hoped by a hberal allowance of cake to make a 

 pasture carry more stock than the crop justified, and the result 

 was disastrous to the plant. On the other hand, an established 

 sheep-pasture cannot weU be cropped too close to maintain 

 constant growth of the sweet fine herbage of which it should 

 consist. 



Widespread indifference prevails as to the predominance 

 of such weeds as cowslips, primroses, orchids, daisies, and 

 plantains, although these plants frequently show that the soil is 

 in such a condition as to be incapable of maintaining nourish- 

 ing herbage. The mere presence of these weeds and of barley 

 and brome grasses is an evil in itself, and they indicate that 

 the land is starved, just as tussock grass, rushes, and sedges 

 prove the need of drainage. Thistles, docks, coltsfoot, and 

 other large weeds may also abound, and they cannot be 

 eradicated without the constant use of the scythe and spud. 

 In a foul pasture the weeds are generally so mixed up with 

 what good herbage there may be, that they can only be 

 improved out of existence as better grasses are induced to take 



