905 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



with any pretentions to utility, by a reference to the particular circumstances of each 

 case ; for the practice of one district, in regard to these and other points, will be found 

 quite inapplicable to others where the soil and climate, and the purposes to which the 

 pastures are applied, are materially different. 



5818. The weeding of pastures should be regularly attended to. Weeds in pastures 

 injure the farmer by the ground they occupy, the seeds they disperse, and sometimes, by 

 influencing the quality of milk, or the health of the cattle. 



5819. On the large scale of a farm small creeping weeds cannot bo removed : but large perennial plants, 

 such as the dock, fern, nettle ; and biennials, such as the thistle, and ragweed ; together with rushes and 

 coarse tutls or tussocks of tall oat-grass, should never be permitted to shoot up into flower. The dock 

 ought to be taken out by the root with the dock-weeder, and the others cut over with spadlets or spuds. 

 Nettles may be mown over, as may some other weeds, and some descriptions of ruslies; fern is most 

 effectually killed by bruising or twisting asunder the stem, when the frond or herb is nearly fully ex- 

 panded. Smaller weeds may be mown, and this operation should never be deferred later than the ap- 



Eearance of the flowers. Where the sloe-thorn forms part of the enclosure hedges, or the English elm, 

 oary poplar, and some other trees, grow in or around the field, they are apt to send up suckers ; these 

 should be pulled up, otherwise they will soon become a serious nuisance. In some parts of England, 

 especially in the central districts, the hedge wastes, from the spread of the sloe-thorn and creeping rose 

 {Rosa, arvfensis), are sometimes six or ten yards in width. 



5820. To prevent the growth of mosses is one of the greatest diflficulties in the management of old 

 pasture land ; by these the finer species of grasses are apt to be overwhelmed, and the coarse sorts only 

 remain. Drainage, and the use of rich composts, are in this case necessary. Harrowing and cross harrowing 

 with a common harrow, or with what are called grass harrows [fi^. 793.), which go from one to two inches 



deep, with a sprinkling of grass-seeds afterwards, and some lime or well prepared compost, are the most 

 likely means of destroying the moss, and improving the pasture. Feeding sheep with oil-cake, and allowing 

 them to pasture on the land, has also been found effectual for the destruction of moss, and bringing up 

 abundance of grass. But the radical remedy is to plough up such grass lands upon the first appearanceof 

 moss, or before it has made any considerable progress, and sow them with corn. 



5821. The removal of ant and mole hills should be attended to during the whole summer. 

 The manner of destroying ants has already been described ; mole-hills spread on grass 

 lands may be considered as of service rather than otherwise. These operations, together 

 with weeding, and spreading the manure dropped by the larger stock, should go on 

 together at intervals during the whole summer. 



5822. The application of manures to grazing lands, which not being used as hay grounds 

 afford no means of supply, may certainly be considered a preposterous practice, and one 

 that must be ruinous to the other parts of a farm. 



5823. In the Code of Agriculture it is nevertheless stated, that " to keep grass in good condition, a 

 dressing of from thirty to forty cubic yards or cart-loads of compost is required every four years. The 

 application of unmixed putrescent manure will thus be rendered unnecessary, which ought at least to be 

 avoided, in meadows appropriated for the feeding of dairy cows, from its affecting the quality of the milk." 

 (p. 476.) Grass lands kept at an expense of this kind will seldom, it is believed, be found to remunerate 

 a farmer sufficiently. The same thing is recommended (probably from inadvertence or mere following the 

 track ofpreceding writers) in Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 953. But, except the dung dropped 

 by the pasturing animals, which should always be regularly spread from time to time, it may be laid down 

 as a rule of pretty extensive application, that if grass lands do not preserve their fertility under pasturage, 

 it would be much better to bring them under tillage for a time, than to enrich them at the expense of land 

 carrying crops of corn. {Sup. 8fC. art. Ai;r.) 



5824. Teathing or stacking on the field, or carrying to be consumed there during winter, the provender 

 that ought to have furnished disposable manure for the use of the farm at large, is another practice not less 

 objectionalile. It is to no purpose that such a wasteful practice is defended on dry light soils, which are 

 alleged to be thus benefited by the treading of the cattle. {MarshaVs Rural Economy of Yorkshire, vol. ii. 

 p. 131.) During the frequent and heavy falls of rain and snow in winter, there is scarcely any land so 

 dry as not to be injured by the treading of heavy cattle; and were there any thing gained in this respect by 

 this management, it would be much more than counterbalanced by the loss of a great part of the manure, 

 from the same cause. The able writer to whom we have just now referred very properly disapproves of 

 carting on manure in winter; and for the same reason, namely, the loss of it, which must necessarily be 

 the consequence, he ought to have objected to foddering on the land, or teathing at that season. The 

 practice, however, is but too common in those districts, both in South and North Britain, where the 

 knowledge of correct husbandry has made but little progress. It is equally objectionable, whether the 

 fodder is consumed on meadows where it grew, or on other grass lands. The fodder should, in almost 

 every instance, be eaten in houses or fold-yards, instead of the dung being dropped irregularly over the 

 surface ; or, as must be generally the case, accumulated in some spots sheltered by trees and hedges, to 

 which the animals necessarily resort during the storms of winter. 



5825. The time of stocking pastures in spring must evidently be earlier or later, ac- 

 cording to the climate, and iii the same climate according to the season ; and the state of 



