SWA 



SWA 



441 



The sward is formed of a web of 

 ihe pools of grass, mixed with tlie 

 best mould. The common English 

 grass, or poa, forms a very firm and 

 toujjh sward, which may be cut up 

 and used as turf. Herdsgrass has 

 a weaker sward; and clover, being 

 tap rooted, forms a very weak and 

 and crumbly sward. The first kind 

 bears the tread <'f cattle, and the 

 pressure of wheels far better than 

 the others. 



The sward is wisely contrived by 

 the Author of Nature, for the re- 

 cruiting and enriching of land. At 

 the same time that it prevents the 

 descending of the food of vegeta- 

 bles too deep into the soil, it is con- 

 tinually collecting it from the at- 

 mosphere. So that for a long 

 course of years, some grass lands 

 v;ill aflfbrd good crops of hay with 

 little or no manuring. 



The sward always contains the 

 richest part of the soil. Accord- 

 ingly it is always found, that land 

 newl) ploughed out of sward is 

 more fruitful than that which has 

 been longer in tillage. Sometimes it 

 will bear as good a crop without 

 dung, as it will in succeeding years, 

 well dunged. 



Other things being equal, a 

 sward that is always fed very 

 close does not gather richness so 

 fa?t as one that has more fogge. In 

 the one case, tho vegetable food in 

 the atmosphere is blown away ; in 

 het other, it is entangled in the fog- 

 ge, retained by it. and carried into 

 the soil by rains, and melting snows. 



A sward on which cattle lie 

 much, or where swine frequently 

 run. as in the borders of manv of 

 56 



our roads, becomes very rich. So 

 that if the surface be pared oflf, to 

 the thickness of two or three inches, 

 and laid in heaps to ferment, with 

 the grassy sides inwaid, it will soon 

 become an excellent manure. A 

 dressing of this will surprisingly re- 

 new the fertility of an old worn out 

 field. But a mixture of dung with 

 this manure will be no small advan- 

 tage. 



By the sides offences, a sward 

 gathers richness faster than in the 

 other parts of a field. The vegeta- 

 ble ft)od which floats in the air, the 

 earthy parts especially, may be 

 supposed to fall, for the same rea- 

 son that snow does, and remain, un- 

 der the lee offences. And the bank- 

 ing up of snow in these situations 

 is another cause ofenriching the sur- 

 focc of the ground. By lying for some 

 time after the ground is bare, being 

 peculiarly adapted to catch and 

 retain the food of plants, it conveys 

 the more of it into the sward. High 

 and close fences produce these ef- 

 fects more observably than low and 

 open ones But this is to be under- 

 stood with limitation; for it is ob- 

 served that a close fence seven or 

 eight feet high has often a much 

 smaller bank of snow under its lee 

 than a fence of but four or five (cet. 



When the sward of mowing 

 ground binds too much, it should 

 be broken up and tilled. But to 

 prevent binding, it should not be 

 fed very close after mowing; and 

 especially a sprinkling of well rot- 

 ted compost, applied in autumn, 

 will not only prevent binding, but 

 increase the next crop, to such a 

 degree, that manure cannot be bet- 

 ter applied. 



