420 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



by the Duke's desire, had been formed by transplanting, I re- 

 quested Mr. John Forrester, who conducted the work, to give me 

 an account of the results ; this he favoured me with, in a valuable 

 communication. Mr. Forrester laid down to permanent pasture a 

 field of sixteen acres ; one half of the field was transplanted ac- 

 cording to the mode above described, and the other half was 

 sown with the seeds of natural grasses and clovers. With the 

 grass-seeds was also sown buck- wheat, which proved a heavy 

 crop, and injured the seedling grasses, by enfeebling their growth. 

 The turf for transplanting being close at hand, saved a great 

 expense in carting, and the expense of the transplanted portion 

 of the field exceeded but little that which was converted by sowing 

 the seeds. 



In both cases the pasture proved good, and equal to the best 

 ancient pasture ; but Mr. Forrester observes, that from the first 

 year until now, (five years from the time the pasture was made,) 

 that portion of the field which had been laid down with seeds has 

 always produced more grass than the transplanted portion. In 

 two other instances, one of a field of five acres, and another of 

 two acres, treated in like manner as the above by Mr. Forrester, 

 he obtained similar results. 



On a farm of the Marquess of Tavistock at Oakely, before 

 alluded to, I observed an improvement on the practice of trans- 

 planting turf; particularly as regards the recovery of a pasture 

 partially deprived of its turf for the purposes of transplanting. It 

 has been recommended to take the turf out in strips, or ribs, six 

 inches wide, and to leave ribs of grass uncut, of three inches in 

 width, to continue the pasture ; but here the turf was allowed to 

 remain in ribs of from ten to twelve inches wide, which, with the 

 liberal use of the grass-roller, had the effect of sooner covering the 

 vacant spaces with grass, or of promoting the union of the edges 

 of the stripes of turf, than when they were left of narrower dimen- 

 sions. A piece of land in Woburn Park was planted with turf, 

 but the expense of the process was here greater than what is men- 

 tioned above in the statements of expense. The turf was taken 

 out in stripes six inches broad, and ribs of grass left three inches 

 wide, to continue the pasture, precisely according to the directions 

 above given. The edges of the stripes of turf left standing to 

 continue the pasture did not however approach or unite, so as to 

 furnish the naked spaces with plants, because there were not any 



