98 HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. 



CHAPTER XV. 



ON THE MANAGEMENT OF PERMANENT PASTURES. 



However good our meadows and pastures may be, 

 it is but natural that we should wish to keep them 

 in good condition, and, if not so good, our object 

 should be to improve them. 



We have already adverted to weeding as a requisite 

 in the improvement of meadow ; we are equally clear 

 upon the subject of drainin g. On both of these points, 

 however, we have met with opposition. The farmer 

 who considers that all is hay that he can get together 

 in a rick, may look more to mass than quality, though 

 even here we are inclined to think that if we take 

 hay and pasture together, the more grasses and the 

 less of rubbish we can get a field to grow, the greater 

 will be our produce in quantity and quality. 



With regard to draining, we are told that it takes 

 the goodness out of the meadow ; but if we have a 

 meadow on clay — we will suppose lias or Oxford 

 clay, — with only a few inches of a stiff soil at the 

 surface, we shall find that those few inches are the only 

 available root ground. Drain, and then we shall soon 

 see that air will follow the water : this united, air and 

 water will decompose plant-feeding matter never 

 before reached. 



Now, where the mistake has been made is, that 

 from this time the herbage gets less and less coarse, 

 and perhaps in some seasons would not produce the 



