194 On Oat Pasture^ 



the pasture being so much the thicker, and the increase 

 of vegetable soil from the decayed roots so much the 

 greater. 



It is not to be expected, that one or two repetitions 

 of the series of oat pasture, will make the soil equally 

 rich as a common dressing of stable manure, which 

 from a farm of 100 acres, will not in general extend 

 over more than 10 or 15 acres ; this gives to one acre 

 nearly the vegetable soil produced from seven or 10 

 acres. — It is to be remembered, that the object pro- 

 posed was to render worn out, or barren fields produc- 

 tive ; and in no case have I found a field, vvhich was 

 not after two years oat pasture, capable of producing 

 clover, and receiving the gypsum w^ith evident advan- 

 tage. So soon as a field produces clover, no one is at a 

 loss, how to produce advantageous crops afterwards. 

 It is in every ones power, to estimate what the plough- 

 ing and seeding per acre of oat pasture will cost, and 

 according to circumstances, so will the expences be, 

 but in general where the expences are high, the value 

 of the pasture is equally so, and if even granted that the 

 cost of ploughing, and seeding, shall be double in va- 

 lue to the pasture produced, let the comparative value 

 of the field be fairly estimated, before the course was 

 begun, a waste, or worn out field, and what it is now, 

 ^vhen the course is completed and laid down in clover, 

 timothy or orchard grass. 



It will be of the first importance to have at least two 

 fields, otherwise if the cattle are constantly upon the 

 same field it will not be found so productive, and in 

 wet weather, they should be turned into some field 

 where the herbage was too hard in dry weather. It will 



