

PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



P 



in. 



not mere!] for the sake of preventing waste, but also For the purpose of keeping down the 



coarser kinds of plants, an. I giving to the pastures as equal and line a sward as possible. 



7'//,- in,, st proper pert >./ must partly depend upon the convenience of the grazier; but it can 



hardly be either Immediatel) before the drought ol summer or ti>. frost of winter. Some tunc in autumn, 



when the ardent heal ol the si at u is over, and when there it still time for a nea growth before winter, 



maj !"• most Mnt.ii.K- tor the land itself, and generally also foi the grazier, hi> fat stock being then mostly 



disposed of, <>r carried to the after-gi is* of mown grounds. I he sweeping of pastures with the scythe 



ubstitutc I'm tin- close feeding ; the waste and labour of which, however, though 



inn' mill,, >. n' does not seem necessary to incur on rich grazing lands, under correct management 



ri ; 



m_' pasture land* is a practice which is sometimes adopted in districts where there is a 



scarcity ofwintei i Vi erthal system, fields in pasture are shut up early in May, and continued in 



that state till November or December, when the farmer's stock is turned in, and continue to pasture till 



the May succeeding. Such management, however, can 

 only be advisable on a soil of the driest nature, which will 

 not be injured by poaching in the wettest seasons. It is 

 practised in a lew places in Cardiganshire ; but is consi. 

 dered by the lateThos. Johnes, Esq., of Hafod, as the result 

 of necessity, the farmers not being able to bring sufficient 

 stock to eat it down in season, when its nutritive powers 

 are in their best state. 



5838. Water should be provided for every 

 field under pasture ; and also shelter and shade, 

 either by a few trees, or by a portable shed, 

 which may be moved with the stock from one 

 enclosure to another. Where there are no trees, 

 rubbing posts are also found a desirable addition. In Germany they have portable sheds 

 which are employed both in summer and winter, and generally with a piece of rock-salt 

 fixed to a post for the cattle to suck at. (Jig. 796.) 



Subsect. 2. Hilly and Mountainous Pastures. 



5839. Hilli/ pastures include such low hills as produce fine short herbage, and are 

 with much advantage kept constantly in pasture, though they are not altogether inacces- 

 sible to the plough ; as well as such tracts as, from their acclivity and elevation, must 

 necessarily be exclusively appropriated to live stock. The former description of grass 

 lands, though different from the feeding pastures, of which we have just treated, in 

 respect to their being less convenient for tillage management, are nevertheless in other 

 circumstances so nearly similar, as not to require any separate discussion. These low 

 hills are for the most part occupied with sheep, a very few cattle being sometimes 

 pastured towards their bases ; and they frequently comprise herbage sufficiently rich for 

 fattening sheep, together with coarser pastures for breeding and rearing them. 



5840. In regard to the management of upland pastures, of the rules which judicious 



farmers practise, the following deserve to be selected: — 



58il. To enclose those pastures, as the same extent of land, when sheltered, and properly treated, will 

 teed a greater quantitv of sto k, and to better purpose, than when in an open and exposed state. Not to 

 overstock upland pastures; for when this is none, the cattle are not only starved, and the quantity of 

 herbage diminished, but the soil is impoverished When the pasture ground is enclosed and subdivided, 

 so as to admit of it, the stock ought to be shitted from one enclosure to another, at proper intervals; giving 

 the first of the grass to the fattening, in preference to the rearing, stock. This practice tends to increase 

 the quantitv of grass, which has thus time to get up; and the ground being fresh and untainted, when 

 the stock returns to it, more especially if rain has fallen, they will feed with greater appetite and relish. 

 The dung dropped by the stock, while feeding, should be spread about, instead of being suffered to 

 remain where it was deposited, in a solid body. Where the larger and the smaller kinds of stock are to 

 be t'et\ on the same pastures, the larger species should have the first bite ; and it is not thought by some 

 ad i isable to depasture land with a mixed collection of different species of live stock, unless the field is ex- 

 tru.-ive, or unless the herbage vanes in different parts of the field. It is generally found, that the grass 

 produced by the dung ol cattle or horses is injurious to sheep, producing grass of too rich a quality for 

 that species of stork. ' There is no mode by which such pastures are more effectually improved, than by 

 the application of lime, either spread upon the surface or mixed with the soil In the latter case, it is 

 essential that the lime should be mixed with the surface soil only ; as lime is apt to sink, if covered 

 deeply by the plough. The coarse grasses would, in that case, regain possession of the soil, and the dung 

 i wards deposited by the cattle will not enrich the land in the same manner as if the lime had been 

 incorporated with the surface only. (( ode.] 



58-1*-'. Mountainous pastures, from which the plough is altogether excluded, have been 

 Commonly classed among waste lands; even such of them as bear herbage by no means 

 of inconsiderable value ; as well as heaths and moors with patches of which the green 

 pastures are often chequered The general term wastes is therefore a very indefinite ex- 

 pression ; and, indeed, is not unfrequently made to comprehend all that extensive division 

 ol* our territory that neither produces corn nor rich herbage. Yet it is on such tracts 

 that by far the greater part of our butcher's meat and wool is grown, and not a little of 

 the former fully prepared for the market. Foreigners and superficial readers at home 

 must accordingly be greatly mistaken, it' they imagine that what are called wastes by the 

 Board of Agriculture, and other writers on rural economy, are really altogether un- 

 productive ; and it would be a still grosser error to believe that all those wastes owe 

 their continuance to neglect or mismanagement ; and that any exertions of human 

 industry can ever render the greater part of them, including all the mountainous tract 

 of Great Britain, more valuable than they are at present, without a much greater 



