APPENDIX I. 



THE mode of returning tillage land to permanent pasture, called 

 transplanting, was invented by Mr. Whitworth, of Acre House, 

 Lincolnshire ; and Mr. John Blomfield, of Warham, Norfolk, first 

 practised it to any extent, having, in 1812, or the following year, 

 converted thirty-two acres of tillage-land by this mode. 



In 1817, Mr. Blakie published a full account of the process, 

 with details of the merits of the new practice ; from which work, 

 the information communicated by Mr. Whitworth, by corre- 

 spondents who have tried this new mode, and from my own 

 personal observations, the following statements and remarks are 

 furnished. 



In laying down land to permanent pasture by this mode, it is 

 essential that the soil should be free of the seeds and roots of 

 weeds, and made perfectly clean by a clear out summer fallow. 

 The autumn is the best season for transplanting turf, and the 

 sooner the work is begun at this season the better, provided the 

 autumnal rains have sufficiently moistened the turf to fit it for 

 paring off clear. By transplanting in autumn, the roots of the 

 grasses get established before the commencement of warm weather 

 in the spring, and stored with sap to supply a more luxuriant crop 

 of grass than when the turf is delayed planting until February and 

 March. On a farm of the Marquess of Tavistock, at Oakely, I 

 witnessed the important effects of particular seasons in trans- 

 planting turf. One part of the field had been transplanted in 

 the autumn, and another portion at different periods of the spring. 

 The superiority of the autumn-transplanted portion of the field 

 was observable at a considerable distance, and when closely 

 examined could hardly be distinguished from old pasture land. 

 In the like proportion, the earlier spring-planted land held the 

 same superiority over the latter spring-planted ground. 



In this new mode of returning tillage-land to pasture, it is also 

 essential that the turf should be selected or taken from the very 

 best pasture, for otherwise weeds and inferior grasses will be pro- 

 pagated. 



