MANAGEMENT OF PASTURES. 71 



areas where it may be stated, with a rough approximation 

 to the truth, that fields are usually laid down in pasture to 

 stay in this condition as long as they will do so, and then 

 they are put in root crops and cereals largely as a preparation 

 for a new grass crop. Therefore the mixtures usually sown 

 are such as will give a high yield of fodder in the first two 

 seasons, and other grasses are included in less amount on 

 the chance that they may establish themselves and so persist 

 for five or six years. It is contended here that this is un- 

 sound practice, that in the first year or two the slow matur- 

 ing grasses are occupying the land unprofitably, and that in 

 the later years, the bare spaces left by the short-lived grasses 

 are pure waste. A field laid down in : 



Italian Rye 6 pounds 



Perennial Rye 8 



Cocksfoot 2 



Timothy 6 



Meadow Fescue 4 ,, 



Red Clover 2 



White Clover 1 



and thus containing long and short -lived grasses in about 

 equal proportions, was found three years from the date of 

 sowing to contain 39 per cent, of bare land, all the Italian 

 Rye and Red Clover, and much of the Perennial Rye having 

 died out. In this field 39 per cent, of the rent and taxes, 

 cost of maintenance, and initial cultivation were all being 

 lost. If no Cocksfoot, Timothy, or Fescue had been sown 

 the pasture would certainly have been ploughed after its 

 second year and a new sole of grass provided for. In the 

 adjacent half of the same field 14 pounds of Cocksfoot were 

 sown and both Rye Grasses were left out, and in this part of 

 the field there were only 16 per cent, of bare spaces. A seed 

 mixture designed to produce the advantages of both tempor- 

 ary and permanent pasture rarely gives economical results. 



