n. YORKSHIRE. 87 



able ley may, on a certainty, be produced, 

 and this without one year's crop being loft. 



The DURATION of good herbage, however, 

 depends much on the nature of the SOIL, and 

 much alfo on the ftate in which it has been 

 kept. Land which has been kept in TILLAGE 

 for centuries is peculiarly affected by the 

 graffes, which, under fuch circumftances, 

 will flourifh for a length of time, even on 

 foils which are not peculiarly adapted to 

 them. Some of the grafslands of this neigh- 

 bourhood are now growing toward a century 

 old ; yet notwithftanding they are generally 

 mown year after iyear without intermifiion, 

 they are ililj in a flourifhing (late : not, how- 

 ever, I apprehend, entirely owing to the me- 

 thod in which they w r ere leyed, but to the lancl 

 having previoufly been long in TILLAGE. 



Neverthelefs, I am of opinion, that the 

 variety and clofenefs of the herbage under 

 notice arifes, in fome meafure, from the 

 METHOD OF LEYiNc. But taking this for 

 granted, and admitting that the produce is 

 fomewhat improved or increafed by an end- 

 lefs variety and an extreme clofenefs of 

 Jierbage, no man, without the pale of dotage, 

 G 4 can 



