PAS 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PAS 



265 



planting timber-trees in the hedge-rows, which will screen 

 the grass from the drying pinching winds of March, which 

 prevent the growth of the grass in large open lands ; so that 

 if April turn out a cold dry month, the land produces very 

 little hay; whereas in the sheltered fields the grass will begin 

 to grow early in March, and will soon after cover the ground, 

 and prevent the sun from parching the roots of the grass, 

 whereby it will keep growing so as to afford a tolerable crop, 

 if the spring should prove dry. But in fencing land, it must 

 be observed not to make the inclosure too small, especially 

 where the hedge-rows are planted with trees ; because when 

 the trees are advanced to a considerable height, they will 

 spread over the land ; and where they are close, will render 

 the grass sour ; so that instead of being an advantage, it will 

 greatly injure the pasture. The next improvement of upland 

 pasture is to make the turf good, where, either from the bald- 

 ness of the soil, or want of proper care, the grass has been 

 destroyed by rushes, bushes, or mole-hills. Where the sur- 

 face of the land is clayey and cold, it may be improved by 

 paring it off and burning it ; but if it be a hot sandy land, 

 then chalk, lime, marl, or clay, are very proper manures to 

 lay upon it; but this should be laid on in pretty good quan- 

 tities, otherwise it will be of little service to the land. If the 

 ground be overrun with bushes or rushes, it will be of great 

 advantage to grub them up towards the latter part of the 

 summer, and, after they are dried, to burn them, and spread 

 the ashes over the ground just before the autumnal rains ; 

 at which time the surface of the lands should be levelled, 

 and sown with grass-seed, which, if done early in the autumn, 

 will come up in a short time, and make good grass in the 

 following spring. So also where the land is full of mole- 

 hills, these should be pared off, and either burnt for the 

 ashes, or spread immediately on the ground where they are 

 pared off, observing to sow the bare patches with grass-seed 

 just as the autumnal rains begin. There are some pasture 

 lands which are full of ant-hills, which are not only disagree- 

 able to the sight, but, when they are in any quantity, the 

 grass cannot be mowed ; therefore the turf which grows over 

 them should be divided with an instrument into three parts, 

 and pared off each way ; then the middle or core of the hills 

 should be dug out, and spread over the ground, leaving the 

 holes green all the winter to destroy the ants, and in the 

 spring the turf may be laid down again ; and after the roots 

 of grass are settled again in the ground, it should be rolled 

 to settle the surface, and make it even. If this be properly 

 managed, it will be a great improvement to such land. Where 

 the land has been thus managed, it will be of great service 

 to roll the turfs in the months of February and March with 

 a heavy wood roller, always observing to do it in moist 

 weather, that the roller may make an impression : this will 

 render the surface level, and make it much easier to mow 

 the grass, than when the ground lies in hills ; and will also 

 cause the turf to thicken, so as to have what the people 

 usually term a good bottom. The grass likewise will be the 

 sweeter for this husbandry, and it will be a great help to 

 destroy bad weeds. Another improvement of upland pas- 

 ture, is the feeding them every other year ; for where this is 

 not practised, the land must be manured at least every third 

 year ; and where a farmer has much arable land, he will not 

 care to part with his manure to the pasture. Therefore 

 every farmer should endeavour to proportion his pasture to 

 his arable land, especially where manure is scarce, otherwise 

 he will soon find his error ; for the pasture is the foundation 

 of all the profit, which may arise from the arable land. 

 Whenever the upland pastures are mended by manure, there 

 should be a regard had to the nature of the soil, and a proper 

 VOL ii. 87. 



sort of manure appled : as, for instance, all hot sandy lands 

 should have a cool manure; cow's dung and swine's dung 

 are very proper for such lands, as also marl and clay ; but 

 for cold land, horse-dung, ashes, or sand, and other warm 

 manures, are proper. And when these are applied, it should 

 be done in autumn, before the rains have soaked the ground, 

 and rendered it too soft to cart on ; and it should be care- 

 fully spread, breaking all the clods as small as possible, and 

 early in the spring harrowed with bushes, to let it down to 

 the roots of the grass. When the manure is laid on at this 

 season, the rains in winter will wash down the salts, so that 

 the grass will derive the advantage in the following spring. 

 There should be great care taken to destroy weeds in the 

 pasture every spring and autumn; for where this is not 

 practised, the weeds will ripen their seeds, which will spread 

 over the ground, and fill it with such a crop of weeds as 

 will soon overbear the grass, and render it very weak, if 

 not destroy it; and it will be very difficult to root them out 

 after they have got possession ; especially Ragwort, Hawk- 

 weed, Dandelion, and such others as have down adhering 

 to their seeds. The upland pastures seldom degenerate the 

 grass which is sown on them, if the land be tolerably good ; 

 whereas the low meadows which are overflowed in winter, in 

 a few years turn to a harsh rushy grass ; but the upland 

 will continue a fine and sweet grass for many years without 

 renewing. There is no part of husbandry of which the far- 

 mers are in general more ignorant, than that of the pasture; 

 most of them suppose that when the old pasture is ploughed 

 up, it can never be brought to have a good sward again ; so 

 their common method of managing their land after ploughing, 

 and getting two or three crops of corn, is, to sow with their 

 crop of barley some grass seeds, as they call them ; that is, 

 either the Red Clover, which they intend to stand two years 

 after the corn is taken off the ground, or Ray-grass mixed 

 with Trefoil ; but as all these are at most but biennial plants, 

 the roots of which decay soon after their seeds are perfected, 

 so the ground having no crop upon it, is again ploughed foi 

 corn : and this is the constant round which _the lands art 

 employed in, by the better sort of fanners, who seldom hav< 

 the least notion of laying down their land to grass for anj 

 longer continuance ; therefore the seeds which they usuallj 

 sow are the best adapted for this purpose. But whatevei 

 may have been the practice, it is possible to lay down land 

 which has been in tillage with grass in such a manner as that 

 the sward shall be as good, if not better, than any natural 

 grass, and of as long duration. But this is never to be 

 expected in the common method of sowing a crop of corn 

 with the grass-seeds ; for wherever this has been practised, 

 if the corn has succeeded well, the grass has been very poor 

 and weak ; so that if the land has not been very good, the 

 grass has scarcely been worth standing ; for the following 1 

 year it has produced but little hay, and the year after the 

 crop is worth little either to mow or feed. It cannot indeed 

 be expected to be otherwise, for the ground cannot nourish 

 two crops ; and if there were no deficiency in the land, yel 

 the corn being the first and most vigorous of growth, will 

 prevent the grass from making any considerable progress ; so 

 that the plants will be extremely weak and very thin, many 

 of them which came up in the spring being destroyed by the 

 corn; for wherever there are roots of corn, it cannot be 

 expected there should be any grass. Therefore the grass 

 must be thin, and if the land is not in good heart to sup- 

 ply the grass with nourishment, that roots may branch oul 

 after the corn is gone, there cannot be any considerable 

 crop of Clover ; and as the roots are biennial, many ol 

 the strongest plants will perish soon after they are cut, 

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