24 GRASS BEEF 



with store-land it would fetch 100 per cent, more rent; com- 

 pared with average good plough-land, 200 per cent, more rent 

 provided it were well watered, moderately shaded and sheltered, 

 and properly fenced. But even with all these, it can easily be 

 spoilt by bad management. 



The surface of these pastures has to be supervised and worked 

 so as to keep them well covered with a carpet of grass that is 

 sweet, nutritious and continually growing from April to the 

 beginning of winter. Otherwise weeds will take the place of 

 useful grasses and clovers. Much skill is required of the grazier 

 in this respect; to keep down weeds requires constant care on 

 all land, even on that under permanent grass. The roller and 

 the harrow must be used at the right time of year so as to 

 improve conditions for the more delicate of the valuable plants ; 

 and when used with discretion the teeth of the harrow will 

 check, and even tear out, some of the obnoxious ones. Later 

 in the year the scythe will need to be used to cut back such 

 weeds as the nettle, which on good land grows with an as- 

 tonishing persistence. But, above all, judicious grazing must 

 keep a thick, level, and evenly growing carpet of herbage on the 

 land. It will only be thick when the small varieties bottom- 

 grasses, as they are called cover all the spaces on the surface 

 which the tall-growing top grasses leave vacant. To keep the 

 sward level the fields must be so fed that no one particular kind 

 of grass gets too high; on the other hand, it must not be eaten 

 down so close as to damage or uproot any of the small but 

 useful plants. A continuous yield can only be secured when 

 the general good management insures that different varieties 

 of plants with differing periods of growth are present, in their 

 correct proportions, among the flora composing the growing 

 pasturage. When all the management is good there will be a 

 regular rotation of growth; the early growing grasses will be 

 bitten off and succeeded by those that bloom later ; while these 

 are being eaten the later growing grasses will be mixing with 

 the second growth of the earlier kinds, and so on. This suc- 

 cession can be helped by skilful manuring ; a few of our practi- 

 tioners know this and take full advantage of their knowledge, 

 but too many are content, in their ignorance of the soil or of 



