HORTUS GKAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



421 



creeping-rooted grasses in the sward to throw out lateral roots 

 and plants ; and the naked stripes, or furrows caused by the 

 removal of the turf, being very inconvenient to the feet in riding 

 or walking over the ground, they had to be filled up with mould, 

 and afterwards sown with grass-seeds. 



The valuable permanent pasture-grasses cannot therefore be 

 said to be propagated or increased on the farm by this process of 

 transplanting turf, but that they are merely removed from one 

 field to another. 



To bring forward to the reader facts capable of easy demon- 

 stration, and which cannot therefore mislead, has been a principal 

 object of the writer of these pages. 



Had the seeds of those different species of grasses which com- 

 posed the turf used in these instances of transplanting, been sown 

 on a separate part of the same field, (or on a soil of the like nature 

 as that on which the turf was transplanted,) and had a dressing 

 of rich mould, equal to that conveyed and applied to the trans- 

 planted portion by the turf, been given to the land sown down with 

 these seeds ; then the comparative value of the two modes of con- 

 verting tillage land into permanent pasture would have been tried 

 under equal circumstances. But it is clear and evident, that if 

 we plant ten, fifteen, or twenty different species of the proper 

 grasses and clover in one field, and on another field or soil of the 

 same nature sow the seeds of only one or two species of grasses 

 and clover, it will surely appear unreasonable, if not absurd, to 

 expect that the comparative value of these two modes of culture 

 can be determined by the results of trials made under such un- 

 equal circumstances. Had the seeds of all these proper perma- 

 nent pasture-grasses, and of which the richest and most fattening 

 pastures were shewn to be constituted, been at the command of 

 those eminent Agriculturists who have put in practice this mode of 

 converting tillage-land into pasture, the comparative value between 

 planting the turf, and sowing the seeds of grasses, would have been 

 satisfactorily determined, and the superior advantages accruing to 

 the farm from the propagation and extended increase of the valu- 

 able permanent pasture-grasses by seed, would then have been 

 demonstrated. But, in the absence of these essential seeds from 

 the market, at a price sufficiently low to insure as regular a 

 demand for them as for rye-grass and clover, the practice of trans- 

 planting turf will be found highly useful ; particularly in clayey 



