MEADOWS. 



lias been rnamiiPd with that of one 

 left in its natural state. It has heeii 

 asserted l)y many agricultural au- 

 thors tiiat the produce of hay is great- 

 er when the meadows are mown ev- 

 ery year, provided tliey be occasion- 

 ally manured, than when mown and 

 depastured alternately. But the pro- 

 ductiveness of a meadow depends en- 

 tirely on the circumstances of soil 

 and situation. A meadow, the soil 

 of which is naturally of a rich nature, 

 and adapted to produce fine grasses, 

 may be mown year after year with- 

 out any perceptible change in the 

 quality of the hay ; while another of 

 inferior quality requires to be occa- 

 sionally cropped close, to check the 

 growth of the coarser grasses, and to 

 allow the finer to rise As to the 

 effect of taking off the hay by mow- 

 ing it, compared with that of the bite 

 of cattle, there is little difference, 

 except that, in pasturing, the grass 

 is repeatedly cropped close to the 

 ground as soon as it rises to such a 

 height that the teeth of the cattle 

 can sever it. It consequently spreads 

 by the roots, and the pile becomes 

 closer. 



" The urine of the cattle greatly 

 promotes luxuriant vegetation in 

 rainy weather, but in hot, dry weath- 

 er it does more harm than good. The 

 dung, when dropped on the grass, is 

 of little or no value compared with 

 what it would be if mixed up with 

 straw, earth, or peat, or diffused 

 through water in a tank. It is there- 

 fore an excellent practice to employ 

 women and children to collect the 

 fresh dung in the pastures, and to 

 carry it to a heap of earth, where it 

 may be covered up, or to a tank, 

 where it may be diluted with water. 



"Of late years the practice of soil- 

 ing has been extensively adopted ; 

 that is, all the grass is mown and car- 

 ried every day in a green state to 

 cows or horses tied up in a stable. By 

 this means all the advantage of mow- ^ 

 ing for hay is obtained, besides an [ 

 aliundant supply of rich manure, 

 wliu'h can be applied to the land in a 

 liquid and diluted state, when its ef- [ 

 feci IB powerful and certain. So { 



much more fodder is produced from 

 the land by the system of soiling, that 

 arable fields are converted into arti- 

 ficial and temporary meadows, in 

 which tiie different species of grasses 

 are sown, in order to be cut green or 

 made into hay ; and when, from the 

 nature of the soil, the herbage degen- 

 erates, the field is ploughed up again, 

 greatly improved by this change of 

 cultivation. 



" When a natural meadow has been 

 neglected, and the grass is of an in- 

 feri(»r quality, and mixed with rank 

 weeds and moss, it requires much 

 care to restore it to its original fer- 

 tility. In most cases, the nlioriest 

 method and the best is to plough it 

 up, clean and manure it during a 

 course of tillage, without taking very 

 exhausting crops from it, and then 

 to lay it down again in a clean and 

 enriched state, by sowing the best 

 sort of grass seeds ; or, which is pref- 

 erable, by inoculating, or planting in 

 it small tufts of grass from some rich 

 meadow, which will soon increase, 

 and produce a new and improved 

 sward. But where the soil is a very 

 stiff clay, with only a small depth of 

 good mould over it, there is some 

 danger in breaking the old sward, for 

 it will take a long time and much ma- 

 nure to reproduce a proper covering 

 of grass. In this case it is a prefer- 

 able practice to scarify the meadow 

 by means of instruments which do 

 not go deep, but only tear up the sur- 

 face. If this is done early in spring, 

 when the ground is moist, and the 

 whole surface is brought to resemble 

 a fallow field, good grass seeds may 

 be immediately sown. If rich ma- 

 nure, mixed with lime orchalk, is then 

 spread over the land, and the whole 

 well harrowed and rolled, the old and 

 young grass will spring up together, 

 and show a wonderful improvement 

 in a very few months. It is prudent to 

 mow this renovated meadow before 

 the seeds of the grasses are formed, 

 contrary to a common notion, that in 

 a thin meadow the seed should be al- 

 lowed to shed, in order to increase 

 the number of plants. The notion is 

 good, but it should be done by sow- 



487 



