io6 A TREATISE ON THE CONNECTION OF 



tillage and pasture, is in general well understood in the 

 highly cultivated parts of Scotland, from which system 

 the crops of artificial grasses are infinitely more abun- 

 dant than from any mode of cultivation in England. 



The articles most generally used as top-dressings are, 

 lime mixed with rich black mould — lime mixed with peat 

 — jjeat ashes — coal ashes — and soot. The refuse articles 

 in different branches of manufacture, when they are to 

 be procured, are also attended with very beneficial ef- 

 fects ; but as the quantity that can be obtained is very 

 small, they cannot be regarded as substances to be gene- 

 rally depended upon, though to lands in the vicinity of 

 such manufadories, they may with great advantage be 

 applied. 



The ashes procured from peat, in the neighbourhood 

 of Reading in Berkshire, seem to j^ossess a fertilizing 

 power, infinitely greater than ashes obtained from most 

 other peat. Tliey certainly contain no alkaline salts; and 

 in an hasty analysis made about nine years since, no sa- 

 line matter is recollected to have been got from them, 

 but a small proportion of Epsom, salt. Had these ashes, 



however. 



