344 Cultivation of Arable Land. After-management of new Grafs Lands. 



to have recourfe to the method of fheep-feeding for fome time after laying the lands 

 down to grafs,as two years or more.* And where ray grafs and white clover are in 

 tended to remain fome years, it is found, by fome, advantageous toeat them thefirfl 

 year by fheep,in doling, thickening, and rendering them more permanent. f Thefe 

 facts are all in evidence of the great propriety and utility of the practice of feeding 

 new grafs lands. It mufl however be obferved, that in order to render the practice 

 as fafe and beneficial as poffible,the new lays fhould not be fed during the autumn, 

 or the flock turned into them at too early a period in the fpring. Nor mould they 

 be too heavily flocked, or the flock kept in the paflures too long, efpecially when 

 it confifts principally of fheep, as they may do much harm by paring and eating the 

 plants fo clofely down, as immediately to kill them, or expofe their roots too much 

 to the deflructive effects of drought. And in cafes where the grafTes have run up 

 much to flem, if the lands be fufficiently Mocked with pl.mts, it may be an ufeful 

 method to cut them over by means of a flrong fey the before their feeds are formed, 

 as by this means they will become more ftrong and vigorous : but in the contrary 

 circumflances, they are better left for the purpofe of providing a more abundant 

 fupply of young grafTes, as the benefit obtained in this way will more than counter 

 balance the injury fuflained by the running up of the old plants. 



But though the practice of feeding new laid graffes in the firft years appears to 

 be the moft advantageous and proper mode of management, efpecially for lands 

 intended for paflure, there are many cafes in which they may be mown with great 

 fuccefs. This practice is perhaps always the moft beneficial and proper, and in 

 deed the only one that can be fafely adopted in fuch foils as pofTefs any great de 

 gree of moi flu re, as under fuch circumflances the feeding them down with any 

 fort of live flock mufl in mofl feafons be injurious to the fward. And, befides, 

 where the object and intention of the farmer is chiefly hay, the grafs-plants, by 

 being kept clofely eaten down by live flock for a confiderable length of time be 

 fore the fcythe is applied, may, from their becoming thereby difpofed to a low 

 and lateral fpreading growth, be afterwards more unfit for the production of hay 

 crops. Several fads of this nature are related by writers on hufbandry. In one 

 cafe, where different divifions of land of the fame kind were laid down in the fame 

 manner, on one of them being kept in a flate of paflure and the other alternately 

 mown and paflured, after fome years both being fhut up for hay, that which had 

 been paflured afforded a much inferior produce to the other. J The fame thing 



* Correded Agricultural Report of the North Riding of Yorkflure. 



t Correded Report of Perthfhire. 

 J Wight s Saltern of Hufbandry, vol. IV. 



