48 AGRICULTURAL ESSAYS. 



agement ; and it is probable that to the imperfect mode of" cul- 

 ture often practised when the plough was introduced into old 

 grass land, may be attributed this failure, and the strong antip- 

 athy which influences the majority of proprietors against ren- 

 ovating them by tillage. It is, indeed, well known, that many 

 fields of such land have been considerably injured, in conse- 

 quence of the plough being used, which was entirely owing to 

 the omission of the most proper mode of destroying the abori- 

 ginal inhabitants. 



Ploughing the land at proper intervals, will never reduce the 

 natural value of any land, provided the management in the in- 

 terim is well executed. 



Land, which has laid a considerable time in grass, is in every 

 situation brought with difficulty into a proper arable state ; be- 

 cause the roots of the natural grasses retain such a hold of the 

 soil, that artificial plants cannot either thrive or prove produc- 

 tive, till the former are completely eradicated, or destroyed. 

 This difficulty prevails in different degrees, according to the 

 nature of the soil cultivated ; for upon soils of a light, or mel- 

 low nature, grass roots may be destroyed with greater facility, 

 and corn crops gained, for a series of years, at much less ex- 

 pense than is practicable upon soils that are composed of clay, 

 and which are situated on a bottom which is retentive of mois- 

 ture. But though corn crops may, in the first instance, be 

 easier cultivated, upon some soils than upon others, yet no 

 soil whatever can be successfully restored to grass in a suita- 

 ble manner, without being completely summer fallowed, or 

 sufficiently cleaned by a fellow crop, according to its nature 

 and other circumstances. It is from neglecting these radical 

 operations, tliot the conversion of grass land to tillage so often 

 proves injurious to the occupiers. 



No kind of soil requires to be oftener renovated by the 

 plough than clay, especially if it be of a thin nature. The 

 "best grass is always obtained in the first year after being sown 

 down, while the roots are creeping upon the surface, and not 

 obstructed by the poverty or sterility of the subsoil. Rich 

 clays will progressively improve while kept in grass, though in 

 an inferior degree to those soils of a drier and less obstinate 

 nature. Hence the great propriety of exercising alternate 

 husbandry upon clayey soils ; in other words, of breaking them 

 frequently up with the plough, and restoring them again to 

 grass, after being cropped for five or six years. When grass 

 land of a clayey soil is converted to tillage, it has been said 

 the first crop in every case ought to be oats ; the reason as- 

 signed, is, that there, is no other grain that forages so well, and 



