Book VI. IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 



909 



expenditure of capital than, under almost any circumstances, they coulil possibly returo- 

 {Sup. art. slgr.) 



5843. Mentealh of Closeburn, in Dumfriesshire, has regenerated old pasture by paring up the turf with a 

 paring plough or spade, laying it to one side for a week or two, and again replacing it where it was before 

 alter the subsoil had been stirred by ploughing and harrowing, and a little lime, ashes, or other manure 

 added. A field so treated was found, in four years, to keep fifteen head of cattle fully better than it did 

 ten in its former state. The improvement is considered to give of annual profit one third of the prime 

 cost, so that in little more than four years it will clear itself. [Gard. Mag. vol vi.) 



5844. Improving pasture without taking a crop of corn. The same gentleman having had a considerable 

 extent of the poorest moorland in Scotland in his estate of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, entertained the 

 opinion that it might pay for improving the pasture without taking a crop of corn from this poor soil which 

 in general was a peat earth upon a gravel or sand or red freestone, and which he considered too poor to 

 produce a remunerating crop of corn. He accordingly set to work to improve about a thousand acri e i 

 this poor soil from four hundred to eight hundred feet above the sea, and sometimes pared and burnt d 

 nearly two hundred acres in one summer, which he ploughed in the autumn and allowed to lie in that 

 state till the next spring, when he laid on about one hundred and seventy bushels of quicklime, or lime 

 shells, as they are there called from their shelling or falling to pieces when watered, per English 

 acre, and in the month of July harrowed in between five and six bushels of //ulcus lanatus grass seed. 

 The greatest part of this land has now been improved about twenty years, and is continuing to yield 

 abundance of grass, and is worth from 12s. to 14s. per acre, while in its natural state it was scarcely worth 

 2s. ; and Mr. M. is convinced it would pay amply for another dressing of lime, which a Scotch farmer he 

 says, would not think of, as the plough is upon all occasions the implement in most active operation with 

 him. In the improvement of moor ground, Mr. M. thinks it highly important to state that the verv worst 

 effects result from pulverising or bringing the peaty or vegetable soil to a complete state of putrefaction 

 or pulverisation, before being laid down to pasture ; and that this must certainly take place when two or 

 three corn crops are taken before sowing out. Moory peaty soil after this treatment is liable to be 

 poached in wet weather, and in dry weather is almost equally incoherent, and is difficult to be again 

 restored without dung or great quantities of earth. (C. G. Stuart Menteath, March 18o0, in Gard. 

 Mag. vol. vi.) 



i^5. The chief improvements of which mountainous pastures are susceptible are, draining and sheltering 

 by plantations. Some parts might probably be enclosed by strips of plantation between stone walls or by 

 stone walls alone ; but as the stock on mountain pastures are generally under the care of a herdsman the 

 advantages of change of pasture and alternate eating down and saving or sparing the grass, by keeping 

 out the cattle, are obtainable without the use of fields. 



Sect. III. Improvement of Grass Lands, by a temporary Conversion to Tillage. 

 5846. The practice of breaking vp grass lands, either with a view to their being soon 

 after restored, or to their permanent retentioti in aralion, has occasioned much discus- 

 sion, and even attracted the attention of the Legislature, and the Board of Agriculture. 

 Iti The Code of Agriculture it is stated, that a " much larger proportion of the united 

 kingdom, than is at present so cultivated, might be subjected to the alternate system of 

 husbandry, or transferred from grass to tillage, and then restored to grass." Much of 

 the middling sorts of grass lands, from 200 to 400 feet above the level of the sea, is of 

 this description ; and many husbandmen, and most indiscriminate friends of the corn laws 

 and the landed monopoly, regret that such lands are left in a state of unproductive pastur- 

 age, and excluded from tillage. Were the trade in corn free, the idea of tilling such 

 lands would be at least problematical. 



5847. A vert/ extensive enquiry was made, in consequence of a requisition from the House of Lords to the 

 Board of Agriculture, in December 1800, " into the best means of converting certain portions of grass 

 lands into tillage, without exhausting the soil, and of returning the same to grass, after a certain period, 

 in an improved state, or at least without injury ;" and the information collected by the Board, upon that 

 subject, is in the highest degree satisfactory and important. 



5y+S. On this subject the opinion of one of our first writers is, " that though it is impossible to deny that 

 much grass land in England would be more productive, both to the proprietor and occupier, under a good 

 course of cropping, than under pasture ; yet it is no less certain, that there are large tracts of rich grazing 

 land, which, in the present state of the demand for the produce of grass lands, and of the law of England, 

 with regard to tithes, cannot be employed more profitably for the parties concerned, than in pasture. The 

 interest which the Hoard of Agriculture has taken in this question, with a view to an abundant supply of 

 corn for the wants of a rapidly increasing population, seems, therefore, not to have been well directed. 

 'Instead of devoting a large portion cf their volumes to the instruction of farmers, regarding the best 

 method of bringing grass lands into tillage, and restoring them again to meadow or pasture, without 

 deterioration ; the first thing required was, to attempt removing the almost insuperable obstruction of 

 tithes, by proposing to the legislature an equitable plan of commutation. If some beneficial arrangement 

 were adopted on this head, there is no reason to doubt, that individual interest would soon operate the 

 wished-for change ; and that ail grass lands capable of yielding more rent and profit under tillage than 

 under pasture would be subjected to the plough, as fast as the demands of the population might require, 

 (Sup. E. B. art. Agr.) 



5849. In giving the essence of the information collected by the Board, we shall first state 

 the opinions as to such grass lands as should not be broken up, and next the directions 

 for breaking up and laying down the others. 



Subsect 1. Grass Lands that ovght not to be broken vp by the Plough. 



5850. There are various sorts of grass lands that ovght not to be broken vp ; as water 

 meadows ; salt marshes ; lands apt to be overflowed ; lands near large populous towns, 

 where the produce of grass land is always in demand, and consequently dear ; and low- 

 lying tracts, in the valleys of mountainous countries, particularly in chalky districts, 

 where old meadow land is scarce, and where a portion of it, to raise early and late food 

 for stock, gives a great additional value to the adjoining upland. But whether rich 

 lands, which have long remained in grass, and continue productive, should ever be 

 converted into tillage, is a question respecting which a great diversity of opinion has 

 been entertained. 



