JUNE.] FEEDING AND MOWING. 357 



and as tough as leather, which will quite destroy 

 it. 



FEEDING AND MOWING. 



Relative to the application of grass, there are 

 some common opinions, which I heard so often 

 canvassed, or rather asserted, in discourse, that I 

 gave a particular attention to them on my own 

 farm. It has been said more than once, that mow- 

 ing land exhausts it more than feeding ; and that 

 pastures should be alternately fed and mown upon 

 the same principles that arable lands are fallowed. 

 I have remarked the effects of both on several of 

 my fields, and also on my neighbours, and there- 

 fore can speak to it from better authority than 

 mere conjecture. Several grass-fields on this estate., 

 and some of my own, have been mown every 

 r r ear as long as the labourers remember : I have a. 

 minute of 22 successive crops of hay in one field, 

 and yet neither that, nor any of the rest, shew 

 nore signs of being exhausted than others on simi- 

 ar soils that have been fed. Here are fields that 

 lave been constantly mown, separated only by a, 

 ledge from others that have been often fed ; the 

 oil and treatment in other respects alike ; and yet 

 he one are as good as the other ; nor are the few 

 ,rops taken from the fed lands better than those 

 ?om others mown. I have fed parts of fields, and 

 nown parts, and the year following mown the 

 vhole ; nor could I perceive a difference. 



Why is feeding thought to be so beneficial, as to 

 ank with a fallow ? upon what principles ? it can 



\ n 3 only 



