MAY. 



so great, nor kept so long, as to allow the plants to 

 be nibbled too- close,; but sheep-feeding is certainly 

 the best for the first year. If bents rise, as they 

 will do, let them be swept with a scythe before any 

 of them seed, unless the plants be evidently too 

 thin on the ground ; in that case, the seed falling 

 may do more good by raising fresh plants, than 

 harm to those which yield the seed. 



But it is not only the first year that sheep-feeding 

 is the best management for a new lay; it should be 

 so fed also the second year ; and if the third, so 

 much the better : there is no necessity for continu- 

 ing it longer : but I have had some fields which suc- 

 ceeded well in feeding four, five, and even six 

 years ; and in general it may be laid down as a rule, 

 that the more the land is sheep- fed, the more it 

 will be improved, and especially if it is ever to be 

 ploughed again for corn. But when sheep- feeding 

 enclosures are mentioned, it is understood that the 

 sheep are not folded from such fields : a ruinous, 

 impoverishing, unnecessary system, of which the 

 farmers are too fond, as they are of every way of 

 robbing grass to favour corn. 



CATTLE IN GRASS. 



When cattle, whether cows, fitting beasts, or 

 young stock, are turned out to grass, it is requisite 

 to consider the best method of feeding. There are 

 two opinions on this point directly contrary to each- 

 Other : first, it is asserted by one set, of graziers, 

 that, let the grass to be fed consist of ever so many 



acres , 



