





MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 267 



are the best adapted for the feeding of sheep while heavy 

 stock is fed with more advantage upon ground which is lower 

 in point of situation, as well as better enclosed. The soil of 

 uplands particularly if it be of a chalky nature bears a short 

 though a sweet bite of grass, which is so favourable to the pas- 

 turage of the smaller breeds of sheep, that although it will sup- 

 port but a scanty stock, it yet produces the finest species of 

 mutton.* Pastures of this description secure sheep from the 

 rot, and in a great degree preserves them from the attacks of 

 flies, from which they often suffer severely. 



But by far the greatest portion of the lands of this country 

 have never been cultivated where forests do not abound with 

 a close undergrowth of brush, these lands generally produce, 

 without cultivation, the herbage plants peculiar to them. Im- 

 mense tracts of mountain and hilly pastures, and unimproved 

 low lands are yet met with; a portion of these lands in their 

 present state are unsuited to cultivation; yet they are suscepti- 

 ble of vast improvement, especially the latter class, by freeing 

 them from stagnant water, which always exerts a most perni- 

 cious influence on the soil and its produce. This is, generally, 

 easily effected to a desirable extent, by affording an outlet to 

 the water in channels, cut in the most convenient places. This 

 should never be omitted where the land is of sufficient value 

 to pay the expense which, under careful management, is not 

 heavy and it is rare, indeed, where land is naturally of suffi- 

 cient fertility to produce the grasses at all, that the expense of 

 giving an outlet to the surface water will not be repaid by the 

 increased value of the herbage plants produced. 



Professor Low recommends a system of draining which has 

 been practiced to a very great extent in some of the mountain 

 districts of Scotland, which is by means of narrow drains, about a 

 foot in depth, made by the spade alone, carried along hollows, 

 whenever the water is likely to be intercepted, by which 

 means it is directed from its usual or natural course. He 

 states that very important improvements have, by this pro- 

 cess, been effected at little cost, and that the tendency to rot, 

 one of the most fatal disorders to which sheep on wet lands are 

 liable, is thereby lessened or removed. 



Mr. LORAIN recommends enclosing or the laying out of 

 natural pastures into fields of a suitable size, as a great means 

 of improvement in elevated countries. Shelter is afforded to 

 the stock, and the animals feed without interruption; as a mat- 

 ter of ornament and profit, useful trees should be planted at 

 intervals on all pasture or grazing lands for which purpose 





* British Husbandry, vol. i. p. 478. 



