210 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 



undergo a partial decomposition in time to meet the wants 

 of the spring crop, and that the soil may be exposed to 

 the ameliorating influence of the winter frosts. 



Paring and burning, upon clay soils, would be of 

 manifest advantage, not only in converting the sod speedi- 

 ly into soluble matters, but in improving the condition of 

 the soil itself. We long entertained a prejudice against 

 this mode of improvement, on the ground that it de- 

 stroyed much of the food of plants ; but we have been 

 induced, in a measure, to change our opinion, from a 

 conviction, that the food of plants is not annihilated, but 

 rather concentrated, changed in its form, and rendered 

 more available to the crop. This is seen in burning new 

 fallows. Paring and burning produce a further benefit 

 by destroying most of the seeds and roots of noxious or 

 useless plants. 



" The objections to the division of a farm," says Sir 

 John Sinclair, ''one half into permanent grass ^ and the 

 other half into permanent tillage^ are not to be surmount- 

 ed. The arable is deteriorated by the abstraction of 

 the manure it produced, if applied to enrich the grass ; 

 while the greater part of the manure thus employed is 

 wasted ; for spreading putrescent substances upon the 

 surface of a field, is to manure, not the soil, but the at- 

 mosphere ; and is justly condemned as the most injurious 

 plan that can be devised in an arable district. The mis- 

 erable crops of corn produced where this system prevails 

 sufficiently prove its mischievous consequences. So in- 

 jurious is this mode of management, that, in the opinion 

 of the most intelligent farmers, the landlord loses one 

 fourth of the rent he might otherwise have got, from every 

 acre thus debarred from cultivation, while the public 

 loses 3 J bushels of grain for every stone (14 lbs.) of 

 beef or mutton thereby obtained." 



The complaint of the inferiority of the new over the 

 old pasture herbage, originates, says Sinclair, either from 

 the improper choice of seeds, or from giving them in too 

 small quantities ; and he quotes the example of an emi- 

 nent farmer, upon a clay farm, who stocked heavy with 

 grass-seeds, and who always secured a thick coat of her- 



