On Grass Land. 417 



the system of feeding and mowing alternately, as they find, 

 under that system, that the quality and quantity of the hay 

 has been improved ; and the pasturage, in the alternate year, 

 has been equally sweet and productive ( 33 *). 



7. It is a most important point to ascertain, in what 

 cases cutting, or feeding, is most beneficial. If fed, the 

 land has the advantage of the dung and urine of the pas- 

 turing stock; but the dung being dropt in irregular quan- 

 tities, and in the heat of summer, when it is devoured by 

 insects, loses much of its utility. If the dung arising from 

 the herbage, whether consumed in soiling, or as hay, were 

 applied to the land, in one body, and at the proper season, 

 the operation would be more effectual. The smother of a 

 thick green broad-leaved crop, continued for any time upon 

 the ground, greatly tends to promote its fertility ; and it 

 has been pretty uniformly found, after repeated trials, upon 

 soils of almost every description, that oats taken after clover 

 which has been cut, either for soiling or hay, are superior to 

 the crop taken after clover pastured by sheep ( 333 ), 



5. Of Natural Hay Meadows. 



There are four descriptions of these meadows : 1. On 

 the banks of streams and rivers , 2. In the neighbourhood 

 of large towns ; 8. In the vicinity of the metropolis ; and, 4. 

 Meadows in boggy or marshy land. 



On the banks of rivers. Were the sides of rivers, or low 

 flat meadows, judiciously inundated, when the stream is tur- 

 bid with earth, or manure washed into it from the country 

 through which it passes, they would reach a high degree of 

 fertility ( 334 ); but being rarely protected by embankments, 

 and frequently overflowed at improper seasons, the soil is 

 often chilled, the best grasses are destroyed, and a worthless 

 herbage becomes substituted in their place. This is parti- 

 cularly the case with common-field meadows, whose drain- 

 age is likewise in general neglected. Such meadows pro- 

 duce about a ton of ordinary hay, and let for about 25s. per 

 acre. If they were inclosed, embanked, and properly drain- 

 ed, they would probably be well worth from L,3 to L.4 per 

 acre ( 335 ). 



In some cases, low flat meadows have been improved by 

 the application of sand, at the rate of from 10 to J5 tons 

 per acre ; but the sand must be carefully spread, and applied 

 at different seasons, so as to prevent any risk of the grass 

 being smothered by an unequal distribution ( 33<s ). 



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