AGRICULTURE AND PLANTING. 55 



On Natural Grasses. 



close down, &c. the grazier will be enabled to receive every benefit, by eating 

 all the produce of his pastures, and likewise be enabled to prevent the stems of 

 some of the grasses from running into seed, an evil which crested dog's-tail jsmd 

 ray-grass are very subject to. 



Having pointed out the best methods of laying down land to pasture, I 

 shall just glance at the best method of restoring degenerated sward, without the 

 assistance of the plough. 



When the sward is degenerated, mossy, or thin, the first thing to be done 

 is to cover it with rotten dung, at the rate of eight or ten tons to an acre, some- 

 time in March; those manures, which are designed to be spread on the surface of 

 grass land, which is called a top-dressing, are best applied in the early spring; 

 and should be dispersed over the soil almost in a state of powder, or in lumps of 

 very loose cohesion; as at this time the vernal showers wash them into the soil, 

 and they are applied to the roots of the grass, before their essential parts are di- 

 minished by winter rains or by summer exhalation, then to scatify it both leno th 

 and cross ways, either with my Sxcard-dresser, or with common harrows, or to ' 

 roll it with a spiky roller. 



Clean the sward of every kind of rubbish, then sow upon every acre, of 



Cow Clover, 4 Pounds. 



White Clover, 8 Ditto. 



Trefoil, 4 Ditto. 



Busii-HARROw the sward well, and then roll it across the ridges with a 

 heavy roller. Clear the pasture of all kinds of stock for three or four weeks, 

 when the young seeds will have got sufficient hold of the ground to admit some 

 ewes and lambs, or other sheep, and as the seeds advance other kinds of stock 

 may be added. 



If any thistles or other weeds should get up so as to injure the young seeds, 

 they must be mown by hand, or by the Thistle Cutter, once, twice, or thrice, in 

 the course of the summer, which will make the pasture so clean, as to put on the 



