Book VI. 



PASTURES. 



839 



found quite inapplicable to others where the soil and climate, and the purposes to which 

 the pastures are applied, are materially different. 



5242. The weeding of pastures should be regularly attended to. Weeds in pastures 

 injure the farmer by the ground they occupy, the seeds they disperse, and sometimes, by 

 influencing the quality of milk, or the health of the cattle. Small creeping weeds cannot 

 be removed on tlie large scale of a farm ; but large perennial plants, such as the dock, 

 fern, nettle; and biennials, such as the thistle, ragweed, together with rushes and coarse 

 tufts, or tussocks of tall oat-grass, sliould never be permitted to shoot up into flower. 

 The dock ought to be taken out by the root with the dock-weeder, and the others cut over 

 with spadlets or spuds. Nettles may be mown over, as may some othefr weeds, and 

 some descriptions of rushes and fern is most effectually killed by bruising or twisting 

 asunder the stem, when the frond or herb is nearly fully expanded. Smaller weeds may 

 be mown, and this operation should never be deferred later than the appearance of the 

 flowers. Where the sloe-thorn forms part of the enclosure-hedges, or the English elm, 

 hoary poplar, and some other trees, grow in or around the field, they are apt to send up 

 suckers ; these should be pulled up, otherwise they will soon become a serious nuisance. 

 In some parts of England, especially in the c^tral districts, the hedge wastes, from the 

 spread of the sloe-thorn and creeping rose (^Rosa arvensis), are sometimes six or ten yards 

 in width. 



5243. To prevent the groivth of mosses is one of the greatest difficulties in the manage- 

 ment of old pasture lands ; by these the finer species of grasses are apt to be overwhelmed, 

 and the coarse sorts only remain. Drainage, and the use of rich composts, are in this 

 case necessary. Harrowing and cross harrowing with a common harrow, or with what 

 are called grass harrows (^Jig. 586.), which go from one to two inches deep, with a sprink- 



ling of grass-seeds afterwards, and some lime or well prepared compost, are the mosC^^ 

 likely means of destroying the moss, and improving the pasture. Feeding sheep witb 

 oil cake, and allowing them to pasture on the land, has also been found effectual for the 

 destruction of moss, jind bringing up abundance of grass. But the radical remedy is to^ 

 plougli up such grass lands upon the first appearance of moss, or before it has made any 

 considerable progress, and sow them with corn. 



5244. The removal of ant and mole-hills should be attended to during the whole summer. 

 The manner of destroying ants has already been described ; mole-hills spread on grass 

 lands maybe considered as of service rather than otherwise. These operations, together 

 with weeding, and spreading the manure dropped by the larger stock, should go on 

 together at intervals during the whole summer, 



5245. The application of manures to grazing lands, which not being used as hay grounds- 

 afford no means of supply, may certainly be considered a preposterous practice, and one 

 that must be ruinous to the other parts of a farm ; yet in The Code of Agi'iculture it is 

 stated, that " to keep grass in good condition, a dressing of from thirty to forty cubic" 

 yards or cart-loads of compost, is required every four years. The application of unmixed 

 putrescent manure will thus be rendered unnecessary, which ought at least to be avoided, 

 in meadows appropriated for the feeding of dairy cows, from its affecting the quarlity of 

 the milk." (p. 476.) Grass lands kept at an expense of this kind will seldom, it is 

 believed, be found to remunerate a farmer sufficiently. The same thing is recommended 

 (probably from inadvertence or mere following the tract of preceding writers), in Dick- 

 son s Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 953. But, excepting the dung dropped by the 

 pasturing animals, which should always be regularly spread from time to time, it may belaid 

 down as a rule of pretty extensive application, that if grass lands do not preserve their 

 fertility under pasturage, it would be much better to bring them under tillage for a time, 

 than to enrich them at the expense of land carrying crops of aorn. (Sup. ^c. art. Agr.) 



5246. Tcathing or stacking on the field, or carrying to be consumed there during winter, the provender 

 that ought to have furnished disposable manure for the use of the farm at large, is another practice not less 

 objectionable. It is to no purpose that such a wasteful practice is defended, on dry light soils which are- 

 alleged to be thus benefited by the treading of the cattle. {Marshal's Rural Scotiomy of Yorkshire, vol. ii.- 



3 H 4 



