86 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES. 



be very backward, liowever, or stand thin on tlie ground, tlie 

 sowing; liad better be deferred for a time. In tlie event of tlie 

 land beinor at all foul, liand-lioeing must be resorted to, and this 

 ^vill open the ground for the grass seeds. The necessary har- 

 rowinfT and rolling; will be beneficial to the wheat plant. 



Notwithstanding; all that has been said in favour of sowinsj 

 ra})e Avitli grass seeds, I cannot recommend the practice. In- 

 stances can doubtless be cited where no injury lias resulted from 

 it. But the great objection remains that it necessitates feeding 

 off the crop by sheep, and, when the rape is ready, the grasses 

 are rarely established sufficiently to bear grazing. The animals 

 eat the hearts out of some plants, ])iill up many more, and 

 altogether do a lot of mischief to a young pasture. 



Autumn Sowing. — Many writers have vexed their souls 

 over the relative merits of spring and autumn sowing without 

 advancing the problem any nearer to a solution. It cannot 

 be solved at all by generalities, although the attempt has often 

 been made. For practical ends it may be disposed of here by 

 accepting necessity as our guide, and then perhaps there need 

 be little or no controversy about it. The decision largely 

 depends upon the possibihty of working heavy land in a wet 

 spring. Sometimes autumn sowing is resorted to Avhen a hot 

 dry summer has scorched the life out of a spring plant. This 

 is one of the many misfortunes to which the agricultuiist is 

 liable, Init it does not touch the point now under consideration. 



Were all the land of tlie United Kingdom light, ])robably 

 the question would never have fi risen. There would have been 

 a general consensus of opinion in favour of spring sowing. It 

 is the extreme difficulty of making heavy land ready for grass 

 seeds before the spring is too much advanced, which renders the 

 state of the weather of so much more importance when sowing 

 grasses than when sowing any other seed. Sometimes it is abso- 

 lutely impossible to pulverise a tenacious soil sufficiently until 

 May is far gone, and then it is very risky indeed to put in 



