44 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 1 



has been gone through, and the mos? lain a Cevv 

 years in wrass, it can be ploughed f=Hli?ly with 

 horpes; which lessens the aiinuiil expi^nse of la- 

 bor, without diminishing the produce. Tlie spade 

 is the only implement l()r the first years ; and it is 

 astonishing with what neatness and expedition the 

 accustomed workmen perlorni' the operation. It 

 is sometimes ploughed the fourlh year where the 

 moss is not very deep. 



When laid down with grass-seeds, the hay 

 crop is often abundant, and the pasture, after- 

 wards, worth £1 5s. per acre; which shows that 

 (he preceding oat crops have not exhausted too 

 much of its strength. Rushes are very apt to 

 grow lip in the pasture; and the poaching ofheiwy 

 pattle ought carefully to be avoided in wet seasons. 



-Abstract of the annual expense and profit per acre, 

 for five years. 



£23 8 11 £12 13 



Average profit, £2 10 9 per annum, and will 

 fetfor £1 58. per acre, in pasture. By this, it does 

 not seem so necessary to lay down with grass, af- 

 ter once manuring it, as indry land; for the crops 

 fail little in produce; and the great desideratum is to 

 have plenty of straw for producing dung, so inva- 

 riably requisite lor the first crop. "^An intervening 

 prop of turnips, however, would be an im))rove- 

 ment in the rotation. 



The different articles of expenditure making up 

 this abstract, are stated at the highest rate, and 

 the articles of produce equally low; so that, on 

 the whole, it may be reckoned a fair average; but 

 the distance from lime, in many places (which is 

 here at hand), must alter the calculation, and in- 

 prease the expense. 



A great deal of moss has now been improved, 

 by cultivating it in the same manner, in the 

 counties of Ayr, Renfi-ew, and West-Lothian; 

 and, indeed, these examples have been the means 

 ,of inciting others to follow the same practice in 

 different parts of Scotland, and which is every 

 4ay becoming more general. 



A great portion of the land under this descrip- 

 tion, is, in its present state, altogether unproduc- 

 tive: but when drained and cultivated in the man- 

 ner recommended, would become valuable, either 

 under a reirular rotation of cropping, or, after be- 

 ifig properly laid down, kept in permanent pas- 

 ture. 



There are various circimistances which must 

 ffuide the possessors of such land in the mode of 

 treating it, which cannot he fully adverted to; but 

 the general hints and directions here given, rela- 

 tive to the difit'.rent soils, &c. it is presumed will 

 apply to most cases. 



I. Very old pastures, over-runioiih rushes, fog, 

 or moss, thai have been long out of cultivation,, 

 but where the soil is strong, and the climate is 

 good. 



In regard to ploughing ground of this descrip- 

 tion for [he first crop it ought to be deep, in order 

 more effectually to bury the moss, * and bring up 

 a fresh mould, which, besides, will render the 

 crop less luxuriant in s'raw, and consequently rot 

 so apt to lodge; and next year's ploutrhing in the 

 same way (deep) will expose, in a more mature 

 state, the surface that has been turned down the 

 9 jyear previous. 



In soils of this description and quality, the 

 great object is to obtain two valuable crops in the 

 \wr>fijrst years, without the aid of manure, or the 

 intervention of a green crop or summer fallow, 

 when such managem.'nt does not tend to deteri- 

 rate, or exhaust the productive powers of the soil. 

 Therefore, in this case, the first and second crops 

 may be oats. If the ground has been in tillage 

 before, though long neglected, and has been Iin)ed 

 oefbre being last laid down in grass, or has been 

 top-dressed with lime in the course of its bring in 

 pasture, there will be no need for giving it more 

 lime during these two crops. If it has not been 

 limed, or ;it so early a period that its effects may 

 now be exhausted, it will not be advisable to put 

 on the lime till the ///(Vci year, as will afterwards 

 be noticed. It will he necessary to attend, in the 

 first place to the proper ploughing and harrowing; 

 as by that, a material saving of seed will be 

 gained. When the furrows are laid over une- 

 qually, too thick, or too broad, openings are left 

 between, and in these interstices an unnecessary 

 quantity of seed is swallowed up, which either 

 never vegetates, of it does, is so weak as to be 

 good for nothing. To remedy this, the simple 

 plan is, to give the ground a slight harrowing up 

 and doivn (not ncToss} the ridges, by which the 

 openings between the furrows will be so much 

 filled up as not to endanger the seed. Indeed thie 

 will be attended with another advantage, that of 

 encouraging the ivliole to come up more early 

 and regular, than would otherwise be the case. 

 All the harrowings should be given in the same 

 way, as there is a risk of reverting the furrows 

 when done cross-ways. Rolling, too, is useful in 

 this case, to tlestroy slugs and worms which in- 

 fest (jround of this kind in the first crop, and which 

 are ofien very destructive. As to the form of the 

 ridges, none can be prescribed for the first two 

 years, but to plough the land in the same shape 



So far, these hints and directions were given 

 an the editions of 1797 and 1801, and apply more 

 particularly to spring bogs, marshes, and peat-moss. 

 The following further observations and directions 

 were communicated by the author to the Board of 

 Agriculture in 1801, in a separate form; but were 

 not then published. They are now added, as be- 

 ing connected vvith the subject. As there was a 

 general scarcity in the country at that time, the 

 Board recommended bringing into tillage all land 

 that was capable of being' drained and brought 

 jnto cultivation, at a remunerating expense; and 

 accordingly the t^ubstance of what follows was 

 ;then communicated. 



There is certainly no other means by which a 

 sufficiency of grain fi^r the maintenance of the 



people, and of improved pasture for that of live l . Moss, here mean., what in Scotland is called fog, 

 Btoclc,^ can be accomplished, than by that under | of so thick and close a texture as to destroy, in a great 



.consideration. 



measure, the growth of any nutritive grasses. 



