108 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VII. 



richness, and both cole and rye-grass, when allowed to ripen their seeds, 

 being very exhausting crops. The system which is recommended as the 

 best to be generally adopted upon such lands, when of an average quality, 

 is however — after paring and burning — to sow cole, to be fed oft' with sheep 

 only ; then oats twice, on one earth each time. Then muck for cole on 

 two earths, or three, according to circumstances, feeding off" the crop, and 

 sow oats or spring-wheat with seeds, to be laid down for four, five, or six 

 years, and even longer, as they may be found to stand. 



It is a common practice not to lay the land down to grass until the third 

 crop of oats, after the first breaking up; but three successive crops of 

 corn on soil of a middling, or indeed of any quality, are too much. The 

 only proper period for laying down land to grass, is, when it is in good 

 heart, has been well worked, and thoroughly cleaned from weeds : this, in 

 ordinary cases, points out the propriety of sowing the grass seeds with tho 

 first crop after a fallow ; ^but in the fens, if laid down with the first 

 crop, the ground is not brought into sufficient tilth to secure a favourable 

 growth to the seeds, and as the pasture is there an object of the first 

 importance, two crops should, therefore, be taken; but no more*. 



Peaty soils, though generally distinguished by the different characters of 

 " hill-moss," " bent-moss," and " flow-moss,*' according to the situations 

 in which they are found, either on mountains, gentle acclivities, or vales ; 

 yet being all formed by the accumulation of partly decomposed aquatic 

 ])iants, or herbage saturated with water, partake more or less of the nature 

 of the materials of which they are composed, and, when brought into a 

 state of cultivation, are generally found to produce earth of a light and 

 porous kind, the properties of which are also governed in some measure by 

 ihe soils upon which they rest, and with which they sometimes become 

 intermixed. 



Hill-moHs moorland is found in wide districts of different parts of the 

 United Kingdom, and is known under the different names of "heath" 

 and " moss ; " the former being covered with a sound, short, and sweet, 

 tluaigh indiff'erent turf, and the latter — which is found chiefly in the north 

 and west of Scotland, — being of a wet and poor quality, is chiefly left in 

 a state of nature: all that can be done for its improvement being to open 

 ^channels for carrying off the superfluous water, and liming it, by which 

 means it may be converted into dry pasture for sheep. In every case 

 where that is practicable, at such an expense as will repay the charge, it 

 ought not however to be neglected ; for, if not drained, the flocks pas- 

 tured upon such land become infected with the rot, and many thousands 

 of sheep are thus annually destroyed f. 



The bent-moss of the moors, or heathy is always covered with a close 

 sward of coarse herbage, and lying upon declivities which frequently afford 

 the convenience of draining it at a moderate cost, it can be, in many cases, 

 reclaimed and brouglit under the plough with considerable ease. The mode 

 of operation is much the same as that practised on the fens ; but the ap- 

 j lication of large quantities of hot lime is absolutely necessary. The 

 method of cultivation is also nearly similar, except that cole is generally 

 omitted, oats being more commonly used for the two following crops after 

 breaking up, and rye being not unfrequently sown. This land, when 

 brought to a state of suflScient consistence, and particularly if it be mixed 



* See the Surveys of Lincolnsh. and Cambridgesh., chaps, iv. sects. 3 ; that of Hunting- 

 (lonsh., chap. vii. sect. 4 ; the Farmer's I\Iagazine, vol. v. p. 290, and vol. i. chap. xxiv. 

 p, 466 of this work. 



f See the Surveys of Diimfriesh, and Ayrsh., chaps, xi. sects, 2. 



