Cultivation of Graft Land. Improving P qJTurcf* 4&amp;lt;7&amp;lt;&amp;gt; 



cr the alder, brier, broom, furze, and other forts that fhoot out upon the furface, 

 and which fhould always be extirpated, as foon as the bufinefs can be conveniently 

 done; as by their remaining upon and fhading the ground they render the her 

 bage four, and improper for the foodof cattle. This fort of work maybe per 

 formed by cutting them clofely do.wn as they rife in the early fpring months ; bur 

 a better practice is to dig them or plough them completely out in the manner that 

 has been defcribed infpeakingof the methods of bringing lands into the Mate 

 of cultivation.* The fhrubby, black, and other thorns and briers that fpring 

 up from fuckers on the fides of the hedge-rows of pafture grounds, fhould like- 

 wife be exterminated, efpecially where fheep are paftured, as they do great mif- 

 chief by pulling and entangling their coats. Befides, much ground is often loft 

 in this way, and the appearances of the hedges is difgufting. In many cafes- 

 after the plants are flocked up, the earth about them might be thrown up into 

 a compofl with a fmall proportion of well rotted dung, and fpread upon the 

 land with much benefit ; and at the fame time the land thus cleaned be brought 

 into a proper condition for being fown down with grafs feeds. 



Where paftures are productive in grafles of the more fharp coarfe bladed kinds - 

 which rife into tufts or tuilbcks, and which are known to agricultors under diffe 

 rent titles as four coarfe gralTes, and there are other forts of aquatic plants prcfcnt- 

 ing themfelves, it is a certain indication that the foil is too retentive of moifture, 

 and not only ftands in need of draining, but alfo of being kept in a clofe ftate.of 

 feeding by different forts of flock. 



The manuring of paliure lands is a bufinefs much lefs in practice than ougbt, 

 perhaps, to be the cafe, as where the foil is not good, and they are kept in a con- 

 itant ftate of feeding or paflurage, it would feem probable that their fertility muit- 

 infome in eafu re decline, if proper means- be not taken to preferve and keep it up, 

 even though they fhould be fed down with fheep, which is unquefrionably in this 

 view the moft favourable fort of frock. It is indeed hardly to be fuppofcd that 

 the fmall proportion of excrementitious matter that is dropped at random during 

 the feeding of the animals, efpecially the larger kinds, under an expofure to the 

 diiTipatirrg and warning effects of the atmofphcre, at diifcrent feafons, .where, no 

 other forts of food than that of the natural Agraffes of the pafturcs is confumed, canjn 

 fuch forts of land be adequate to the reftoration of the great. degree of fertility thaus -, 

 conftamly conveyed away in the time of pafturing. In the better kinds of paftuxe, 



*Si;dron on the-Cultivation of Arabic Land. 



