88 PRIMARY RESULTS 



(h) Pastures and Grazing 



In no case did the farm records, used here for purposes 

 of illustration, allow of a distinction being drawn between 

 permanent and temporary pastures. The stock, more 

 especially the sheep, are moved about from grass-land to 

 seeds, and from one field to another, and, although there is 

 not the slightest reason why an account should not be kept 

 of the number of days spent on each, it has not yet been 

 attempted, and the grazing, both permanent and temporary, 

 have necessarily been treated as one crop. 



As pasturage is nothing more than a food for the live stock 

 of the farm which it is more convenient to produce than to 

 buy, no question of profit or of loss is involved, and it is only 

 necessary to ascertain its cost to the farmer, and to charge 

 this against the stock grazed on it. Any profit or loss which 

 may arise from its use will be realized on the sale of the stock. 



To determine the cost of the grazing, the expenditure on 

 manual and horse labour, for operations such as harrowing, 

 rolling, thistle-cutting, &c., is got from the farm labour- 

 sheets, and the horse account ; purchased manures applied 

 are charged at that proportion of the total cost which repre- 

 sents the amount held to be exhausted during the year, the 

 remainder being carried forward to the years following. 

 The actual proportion will vary with the nature of the 

 manure ; thus, in some parts of the country, such as the 

 East Midlands, where chalk is applied to the land, it is 

 customary to regard no part of it as being exhausted during 

 the four following years presumably because it may take 

 that time to become properly incorporated with the soil 

 after which one -eighth is held to be exhausted annually, 

 and when twelve years have passed from the date of the 

 application the item passes out of the books. Nitrate of 

 soda, on the other hand, would generally be regarded as 

 having no lasting effect, and the whole of its cost would be 

 charged against the crop of the year following the applica- 

 tion. Farm-yard manure is treated according to the same 

 principle, two-thirds of the cost being charged against the 



