364 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



3. Poor Clays, 



9, 11, 16 3 



4. Uplands, 



7, 10, 23, 24 4 



Total, 24 



162. From these data it follows that only about eight 

 species of grasses are really of the best ; all the others are 

 inferior, or not so good ; and if we look carefully to the 

 examples which may come before us of the four kinds of 

 meadow just tabulated, we shall most certainly find that if 

 the grasses are more mixed than stated and it will be 

 next to impossible to define their limits with absolute ex- 

 actitude yet they will prevail upon the plan stated ; any 

 admixture, for example, of 2 with 1 , or 3 or 4 with 2, will 

 be exceptional cases, and the interloping specimens will 

 ever be starved, and grow in bad condition ; as thus, the 

 Aira flexuosa, even if sown, would die the first year in a 

 rich meadow ; whilst Alopecurus pratensis could not live in 

 a poor upland." 



163. We now proceed to discuss the subject of perma- 

 nent pasture under the two heads of "how to pro- 

 duce a new," and second, "how to improve an old 

 pasture." In commencing to form a new pasture, the 

 first point to be considered is the nature of the soil, 

 which naturally dictates the kinds of grasses to be grown 

 upon it. Some soils are so remarkably well adapted to 

 the production of rich grasses, that with the simple appli- 

 cation of manure which it receives from the droppings of 

 the stock fed upon it, its value will be maintained for a 

 long series of years. In other soils the elements of fertility 

 are so few that the produce is exceedingly poor, unless the 

 deficiency is made up by the application of manures. "We 

 have said above that the nature of the soil defines the kind 

 of grasses to be sown. Professor Coleman, in describing 

 in an excellent paper on " the Management of Grass Land," 

 read before the Central Farmers' Club the mode of produc- 

 ing a pasture, states, that there should be a mixture of grar 



