22 VOELCKER on the Scouring Lands 



The preceding analytical proofs and agricultural facts warrant 

 the conclusions that will be found in this paper. For the con- 

 venience of the readers the leading conclusions may here be 

 briefly recapitulated : 



1. Lias-clay soils contain nothing injurious to vegetation. 



2. These clays contain abundance of mineral plant-food. 



3. The waters in the lias-formation are very hard ; many 

 possess medicinal properties, and, no doubt, scour cattle that 

 drink them. 



4. In some exceptional instances land scours on account of 

 being inefficiently drained. 



5. In most cases, however, the evil can be traced directly to 

 the immature condition in which the herbage is consumed by 

 cattle on scouring land, or made into hay. 



6. This immature condition of the herbage is most notable 

 during the drier summer months, when the young herbage grows 

 very luxuriantly. 



7. The immature condition in which the herbage on scouring 

 land is usually consumed, is principally caused by the peculiar 

 character and relation of the subsoil to the surface-soil of scouring 

 pastures. 



8. No positive evidence exists, showing that the complaint is 

 due to a particular species of herb. 



A clear recognition of the causes which produce certain evils 

 generally leads to some cure, or to means which are calculated 

 to mitigate what cannot be cured. This report would not be 

 complete if no allusion were made to the means at our com- 

 mand, either to cure scouring land or to mitigate the complaint 

 to which cattle are subject on certain pastures. But as the 

 report has become already more bulky than I intended to make 

 it, the briefest allusions to this matter must suffice. I would 

 therefore observe 



1. It is highly advisable to cut off the supply of hard lias- 

 springs and to provide cattle with soft drinking water. 



2. Rain-water tanks, for the supply of soft water, should be 

 constructed in localities where cattle are obliged to drink hard 

 waters that rise in the lias-clay. 



3. In some, though I fear exceptional cases, more efficient 

 drainage will mitigate the evil. 



4. It is desirable to keep cattle from scouring pastures in 



