270 ON BREAKIXG UP GRASS LANDS. 



excliang'e a certainty for an uncertainty, a step wliicli g'ene- 

 rally indicates a deficiency of judg-ment, and -wliicli is of too 

 speculative a character for tlie cautious agriculturist to 

 indulg"e in. 



Journal of the R. A. S. E., vol. vii. part 1. 



Art. LX.—ON BREAKING UP GRASS LANDS. 



How Pasture sltouJd he hroJwn vp. 



All clay pasture lands should be pared and burnt; there are 

 man}" advantag-es attending- this operation in all cases, but 

 there are some peculiar to clay lands — such, for instance, as 

 the improvement it effects in the texture of such soils. At 

 the same time it should be remembered, that land when wet 

 will appear to have an adhesive texture, which when drained 

 will prove a friable open soil ; and therefore no decision on 

 this subject is advisable until after drainage. The object of 

 the landowner in naming- the terms (on this head) on which 

 he will permit the farmer to break up g-rass land, should be 

 to arrang-e so that he may have half of his land in green 

 crop and half in g'rain during- the first and all succeeding- 

 3'ears ; and in the case of clay land it is necessary to bum 

 all, because while there is no immediate necessity for it in the 

 case of that half of it which is to be sown with oats, beans, 

 or wheat, as the case may be, yet on such soils the sward 

 will not have been sufficiently reduced by the ploughing- and 

 rest for a year, vvhich that half of it will thus receive, 

 to answer for the green crop, which in the succeeding- j-ear 

 follovrs those crops. In the case of light land, however, 

 there is no such difficulty, and therefore on such soils it will 

 be advisable to pJoiujli vp the half intended for grain crops 

 (it will thus be sufficiently rotten and reduced by next spring 

 for green crop culture), and to pare and burn the half in- 

 tended for turnips, Swedes, Szc. That was the mode adopted 

 on the farm I now occupy ; about half of it was ploughed 

 and half pared and burnt. A great crop of oats, and a great 

 crop of turnips, was thus obtained, and a large stock of sheep 

 and cattle were thus kept during- the first winter ; a large 

 stock of manure was thus produced, and a sure foundation 

 thus laid for the permanent fertility of the land. 



