272 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



extent to which land not fitted for a succession of grain crops may 

 be ploughed. 



But a far better way than ploughing exists, in ray opinion, to 

 renew the grass upon old meadow land. There are two ways in 1 

 which it may be done without ploughing ; one through the agency 

 of red clover, the other by top-dressing with manure, of which the 

 one most important to be understood, because the easiest, and 

 cheapest, is that which is effected by clover. 



Strange as it may appear to some, clover is to stiff clayey soils 

 when kept constantly in grass, and rightly managed, the same 

 source of fertility that it is to dry land in a judicious rotation of 

 crops. 



Although it generally succeeds but poorly on such land in a 

 new seeding, after tillage, owing to the roots being drawn out by 

 frost, it by no means follows that such soils are incapable of pro- 

 ducing it. On an old meadow matted with other grass, there is 

 but little freezing and thawing of the surface to draw out the 

 roots of clover, and the multiplicity of other grass roots tend to 

 bind them to the soil. 



But it requires peculiar management of meadow land to pre- 

 serve in it a succession of clover so as to maintain the fertility of the 

 soil, and renew other grass upon it, so as to increase its burthen, 

 like to a new seeding. 



By observation, I have been enabled to discover the circum- 

 stances which govern the production of clover on old meadows^ 

 which might be called an inductive theory of its operation. To 

 secure its benefits, one general principle is to be observed, which 

 is, to always let the rowen clover go to seed, before cattle are 

 turned on to pasture the after crop. 



The operation is simply : this suppose an old meadow that is 

 running down to blue grass. Timothy and other grasses are 

 dwindling to a light crop, and there are plants of clover scattered 

 over the land, which are permitted to spring up after mowing, 

 and go to seed. The seed sheds abroad over the surface in the 

 fall and winter ; in the spring it comes up very early, and is 

 protected from frosts by the old stubble and moss which is upon 

 the land. The crop of other grass being light gives the young 

 clover a chance to grow, which consequently brings the land 

 round to clover, the old grass preserves the roots during the win- 

 ter, the next year it is up betimes, and takes possession of tbtf 



