14 A FARMER'S YEAR 



the labour bill as low as possible, and to reduce the number 

 of horses necessary to its working, which, by the way, if I 

 remember right, was four for the first two years. To do this, it 

 was essential that a good deal more land should go down to 

 grass, and for grass accordingly I set apart pieces numbered 

 10, 19, 15, 1 6, 21, and 22. As might be expected, my idea of 

 laying land of this character down to grass at all met with con- 

 siderable criticism. The late tenant had informed me, when I 

 made the suggestion to him, that it was futile, as the grass would 

 never stand more than three years ; and other authorities were 

 not much more encouraging. It was at this juncture that I happened 

 to read in the Times a letter from Mr. Elliot, of Clifton Park, 

 describing his method of dealing with bad thin-skinned lands which 

 he wished to lay down, by mixing with the permanent grass seeds a 

 proportion of deep-rooting herbs weeds, some would call them 

 such as chicory, burnet, lucerne, and yarrow, the object being to 

 pierce the hard pan of clay sub-soil with their roots, and let the 

 air down into it to do its fertilising work. This experiment, after 

 some correspondence with Mr. Elliot, who most kindly replied to 

 my queries, I determined to try upon the worst piece of all, about 

 seven acres of land next to the wood, numbered 1 9 on the map. 



Accordingly, having first been thoroughly ' bush-drained,' a 

 process which I shall have occasion to describe later, down it went, 

 the permanent pasture seeds, plus the deep-rooted ' rubbish,' being 

 sown in a crop of barley. 1 In the two following years, 1895 and 



1 This is the mixture of seeds with which No. 19 was sown down four years 

 ago, and that has been sown for permanent pasture with the barley on No. 21 

 this year (1898). 



PROPORTIONS PER ACRE 



45 Ibs. in all. The four last mentioned are the deep-rooted herbs. 



