Bc'K VI. PERMANENT PASTURES. 905 



will also thrive as well upon it. The quantity recommended is, a peck of salt to a ton of hay. By this 

 application, hay that had been flooded was preferred by cattle to the best hay that had not been salted. 



5809. To make hay-tea. Boil at the rate of a handful of hay to three gallons of water, or, if the water 

 be poured boiling hot on the hay, it will answer nearly as well. Give it to the cattle and horses to (.rink 

 when cold ; or if the cattle and horses are anywise ill, and under cover, give it to them blood-warm. This 

 drink is so extremely nutritive, that it nourishes the cattle astonishingly, replenishes the udders of the 

 cow with a prodigious quantity of milk, makes the horse stale plentifully, and keeps him healthy and 

 strong ; and by this method one truss or hundred of hay will go as far as eight or ten would otherwise do. 

 The cattle and horses do not seem to like it at first ; but if they are kept till very thirsty, they will drink 

 freely of it ever afterwards. The hay, after being used as before mentioned and dried, may be used as 

 litter for horses and cattle ; it will make very good manure, and save straw, which is a considerable 

 advantage, especially where there is a scarcity of that article. {Davis's Rep. of Wilts.) 



5810. The after-grass on all meadoivs is generally fed off; on firm lands, and in the 

 dry season, by either sheep or heavy cattle ; but in the winter only by sheep, unless the 

 soil is so dry as not to be injured by the feet of cows or horses. The feet of the latter 

 are much less injurious than those of the former ; but their bite being closer is more apt 

 to tear up the plants, than the bite of the horned tribe. 



5811. Cattle are generally removed from meadow-lands in Middlesex in November ; horses in the month 

 following, and sheep allowed to remain till February. In Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and on many 

 river-meadows, every description of stock is allowed to remain till April, and sheep till May. Tn some 

 districts, the whole of the after-growth is preserved from every species of stock till the following May, 

 when it is fed off with sheep : but this greatly retards the hay crop for that year. It is evident that a good 

 deal must depend ^n the farmer's other resources for keep for his stock. 



58iy. The nftcr-grass, where manure is very abundant, is sometimes mown and made into hay orrouen, 

 a soft and not very nutritive food, given to cows or sheep; but this is reckoned a bad practice, even in the 

 neighbourhood of London, where manure may be had in abundance. It is also the usage of some to 

 leave the after-grass on the ground without being eaten till spring, when it is said to be preferable, for 

 ewes and lambs, to turnips, cabbages, or any other species whatever of what is termed spring-feed. This 

 mode of management, which is strongly recommended by Young, and in some cases by Marshal also, is 

 unknown in the north ; where, though it is, in many instances, found beneficial, with a view to an early 

 spring growth, not to eat the pasture too close before winter, it would be attended with a much greater 

 loss of herbage, than any advantage in spring could compensate, to leave the after-growth of mown grounds 

 untouched till that season. 



5813. A sy stein of alternate mowing and feeding is practised on some hay lands, partly 

 to save labour and manure, and partly to subdue mosses and coarse grasses. On some 

 soils even rich grass lands, when annually mown, become subject to weeds ; for it tends 

 to encourage moss, and gives advantage to the stronger-rooted grasses, which gradually 

 change, and deteriorate the nature and quality of the herbage. The bottom becomes 

 thin, the white clover disappears, and coarser plants occupy the ground. When this takes 

 place, the pasture should be fed, instead of being mown, for the space of two or three 

 years, until the weeds have been subdued, and the finer grasses re-appear. 



5814. By adopting the plan of mowing and feeding alternately, a farmer, it is said, may go on longer 

 without the application of manure, but his fields, in the end, will be ruined by it. It is contended, that 

 to maintain a proper quantity of stock, the land must be accustomed to keep it, particularly in the case of 

 sheep : that where land has been used to the sycthe, if manured for pastures, it will often produce more 

 grass ; but that grass will not {cceteris paribus) support so much stock, nor fatten them nearly so well : 

 and that old pasture will not produce so much hay as land that has been constantly mowed ; for each will 

 grow best as it has been accustomed to grow, and will not readily alter its former habits. On the other 

 hand, it is asserted, that many experienced farmers prefer the system of feeding and mowing alternately, 

 as they find that, under that system, the quality and quantity of the hay have been improved j and the 

 pasturage, in the alternate year, has been equally sweet and productive. 



Sect. II. Permanent Pastures. 



5815. Permanent pastures may be divided into two kinds : rich or feeding lands ; and 

 hilly or rearing pastures. Under the former, we may comprehend all old rich pastures 

 capable of fattening cattle ; and under the second, such as are only adapted to rearing 

 them, or are more advantageously depastured with sheep. 



SuBSECT. 1. Rich or feeding Pastures. 



5816. Feeding pastures may include such as are equally fit for hay-lands, or for being 

 converted to arable husbandry ; their characteristic being, that they are used for feeding 

 stock, and keeping working animals and milch cows in good condition. We mentioned 

 in a former chapter, that pasturage for one year, or for two, or more, is frequently in- 

 terposed in the course of cropping arable land, to prevent that exhaustion of the soil which 

 is commonly the consequence of incessant tillage crops. The same culture and manage- 

 ment recommended here for rich grass lands are equally applicable to them ; there being 

 no difference, except that the latter are generally considered less suitable than rich old 

 turf for fatting heavy stock, such as large oxen. 



58 1 7. The culture and management (f feeding pastures, whether of a few years, or of 

 perpetual duration, may be considered in regard to those necessary operations already 

 noticed under the former section : such as the extirpation of weeds and noxious shrubs, 

 clearing away ant and mole-hills, the application of manure, the time of stocking, the 

 number of the animals and whether all should be of one or of different species, &c., the 

 extent of the enclosures, and the propriety of eating the herbage close or leaving it always 

 in a rather abundant state ; all these are questions which it is scarcely possible to decide 

 in a satisfactory manner, by the application of general rules. They can only be solved. 



