172 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



of foul hedges and road-sides is the best possible encourage- 

 ment for the propagation of those perennial weeds which 

 infest permanent pasture land. In Warwickshire, I have 

 seen valuable pasture land so deteriorated by the intermix- 

 ture of these weeds, supplied liberally from foul hedge-rows 

 and road-sides, as to be little superior to the worst land kept 

 under proper management ; besides, the weeds in these 

 nurseries afford shelter, and, at particular periods, nourish- 

 ment to insects which annoy and distress cattle in summer. 



The comparative value of permanent pasture and tillage 

 land, is a subject out of the reach of the humble narrator 

 of facts. Yet, after all, pasture land and tillage land are 

 so mutually dependent on each other, and the community 

 on them both, that the question which of the two is the 

 most valuable, and to be encouraged in preference to the 

 other, for private or for public advantage, can never receive 

 an absolute answer ; for the various local circumstances of 

 soil and climate under which lands may be situated, also 

 the fluctuations in the demand for particular farm produce 

 caused by every temporary change in the political state of 

 the country, make it impossible to obtain data on which to 

 ground a clear and satisfactory answer to the question, and 

 which shall be found to be correct under every circumstance. 

 One thing is certain, i. e. that pasture land is the first 

 foundation of the riches of a farm. 



All that has been here brought forward goes no further 

 than to prove, that where such lands have already been 

 converted to tillage, they may, by the means now recom- 

 mended, be brought to as valuable a state of pasture as 

 before, if not to a superior state, and that in the space of 

 four years. The means for effecting this, however, have not 

 yet been sufficiently within the power of the agriculturist. 

 It is required that a more general knowledge of the different 

 grasses, and of the importance, or rather absolute necessity, 

 of a combination of man^ different grasses, instead of two 

 or three different species, to form permanent pasture, in a 

 short space of time, equal to the best formed by nature, 

 shall be generally diffused among practical farmers; and 

 also that the mode shall be adopted of raising and obtaining 



