22 PERMANENT AND TEMPOHAEY PASTURES. 



The Selection of Grasses and 



Clovers, 



All the operations wliicli concern tlie making of a ])astnre are 

 important, bnt it is no exaggeration to say that a jndicions com- 

 bination of the various grasses and clovers which are to consti 

 tute the crop may be justly regarded as vital to success. Failure 

 here means the waste of all otlier energies, for it is worse than use- 

 less to incur the labour and expense of establishing plants which 

 are not wanted. However good they may be elsewhere, they 

 will be no better than weeds if they fail to answer the required 

 purpose. Tlie choice of suitable seeds has provoked greater 

 conflict of opinion, both among theorists and practical men, than 

 aught else, and in my o|)inion the main cause of tlie controversy 

 arises from tlie attemi)t to deduce large inferences from small ex- 

 perience. The laying down of land to grass is only an occasional 

 incident on most farms — perhaps it woidd be correct to say on 

 most estates — and in years not far removed it was less frequent 

 than at present. In fact, up to some fifteen years ago the 

 ])lougliing up of grass land to grow corn was the order of the 

 day. Even now it is the exception to find persons wdio ai'e able 

 to s[)eak from experience gained from actual jiractice over more 

 than a very limited area. Yet the man wiio has dabbled a little 

 in laying down land will sometimes follow it up with a letter to a 

 daily or weekly newspaper, or deliver a speech at a local farmers' 

 club, from which it might be inferred that the aoriculturists of 

 the United Kingdom will find in a particular mixture of seeds 

 the pre,ventive of all the ills that grass lands are heir to. Now 



