Book VI. GRASSLANDS. 833 



embanking. Such meadows are generally slocked with the best grasses ; and their cul- 

 ture consists of little more than forming and keeping open a sufficient number of surface- 

 gutters or furrows to carry off the rain-water ; rooting out such tufts of rushes or bad 

 grasses and herbage, as may occasionally appear ; destroying moles, and spreading the 

 earth they throw up ; removing heavy stock whenever their feet poach the surface ; shut- 

 ting up, bush-harrowing, and rollmg at the commencement of the growing season ; and 

 finally so adjusting the mowing and pasturing as to keep the land in good heart without 

 laying on manure. 



5199. The most suitable meadows for irrigation are of this description ; the necessary 

 drains and other works are executed with greater care, and with less expense, and the 

 management, as we have seen (4057.), is also comparatively easier than in watering 

 sloping surfaces. 



5200. Upland meadows, or mowing lands, are next in value to those of valleys. The 

 soil is either naturally good, and well adapted for grass, or, if inferior by nature, it is so 

 situated as to admit of enriching it by ample supplies of manure. Of this last de- 

 scription are the upland meadows, or hay lands of Middlesex ; which, though on the 

 most tenacious, and often stony clays, are yet, by the abundance of manure obtained 

 from the metropolis, rendered as productive as the best upland soils employed as hay 

 lands. The roots of perennial grasses, whether fibrous or creeping, never strike deep 

 into the soil ; and thus deriving their nourishment chiefly from the surface top dressings 

 of well -rotted manure repeated on the same field for centuries, forms at last a thin black 

 stratum among the roots of the grass, which produces the most luxurious crops. 



5201. The culture of upland meadows requires more attention and expense than those 

 of valleys ; being more diflScult to drain, and requiring regular supplies of manure. 

 The irregular surface of uplands is apt either to contain springs or to stagnate the surface 

 water ; the first produces marsh plants and coarse herbage, and the latter destroys or 

 w^eakens whatever is growing on the surface, and encourages the growth of moss. Both 

 evils are to be remedied by the obvious resources of drainage. Moss is a very common 

 enemy to grass lands, and is only to be effectually destroyed by rich dressings of 

 manure. Rolling, and top-dressings of lime and salt, have been recommended for de- 

 stroying it ; but there is no mode by which it can be subdued and kept under, but by 

 adding strength to the grass plants, and thereby enabling them to suffocate their eriemy. 

 Moss is never found on rich lands unless they are completely shaded by trees. Besides 

 raole-hills, upland meadows, when neglected, are frequently troubled with ants, which 

 form heaps or hillocks of grass and earth, more injurious and more difficult to get quit 

 of than those of moles. The mode of taking moles is a simple operation, and will be 

 described in the proper place : that of destroying ants is more complicated and tedious, 

 and being peculiar to grass lands, shall here be described. 



5202. Ant-hills, or habitations, are injurious to meadow lands, by depriving the farmer 

 of a crop in proportion to the surface they occupy, and by interfering with the operations 

 of rolling and mowing. They consist of little eminences, composed of small particles 

 of sand or earth, lightly and artfully laid together, which may often be computed at a 

 tenth part, or more, of old grass lands. And in some places, where negligence has 

 suffered them to multiply, almost half of it has been rendered useless; the hills standing 

 as thick together as grass-cocks in a hay-field : and what is very surprising, this in- 

 dolence is defended by some, who affirm, that the area or superficies of their land is 

 thereby increased ; whereas it is well known that very little or no grass ever grows 

 thereon, and, therefore, if the surface be increased, the produce is proportionably 

 decreased. 



5203. In order to remove ant-hills, and destroy the insects, it has been a custom in some places, at the 

 beginning of winter, and often when the weather was not very cold, to dig up the ant-hills three or four 

 inches below the surface of the ground, and then to cut them in pieces, and scatter the fragments about : 

 but this practice only disseminates the ants, instead of destroying them, as they hide themselves among 

 the roots of the grass for a little time, and then collect themselves together again upon any little emi- 

 nence, of which there are great numbers ready for their purpose, such as the circular ridges round the 

 hollows where the hills stood before. It is, therefore, a much better method to cut the hills entirely off, 

 rather lower than the surface of the land, and to let them lie whole at a little distance, with their bottom 

 upwards : by this means the ants, which are known to be very tenacious of their abodes, continue in their 

 habitations until the rains, by running into their holes of communication, and stagnating in the hollows 

 formed by the removal of the hills, and the frosts which now readily penetrate, destroy them. If a little 

 soot were thrown on the places, and washed in with the rains, it would ])robably contribute greatly to the 

 intended effect. The hills, when rendered mellow by the I'rosts, may be broken and dis^Mjrsed about the 

 land. By this method of cutting the hiUs, one other advantage is gained ; the land soon becomes even 

 and fit for mowing, and the little eminences being removed, the insects are exposed to the wet, wliich is 

 very disagreeable and destructive to them. It would, perhaps, be a better practice than that of suffering 

 the hills to remain on the ground, to collect the parts of them which have been pared off'into a heap, in 

 some convenient place, and then form them into a compost, by mixing a portion of quick-lime with them. 

 In wet weather these insects are apt to accumulate heaps of sandy particles among the grass, called by 

 laborers sprout-hills, which quickly take off the edge of the scythe. These hills, which are very light 

 and compressible, may be conveniently removed by frequent heavy rolling. 



5204. In the Norfolk mode of cutting and burning ant-hills, the process is, to cut them up with a heart- 

 shaped sharp spade or shovel, in irregular lumps of from ten to fifteen inches in dinmeter and from two 



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