GRASSES. 369 



at first hopeless to try and develop good grasses and de- 

 stroy the rubhish. Still, I have seen very remarkable improve- 

 ments effected by care and attention ; and, as a general rule, 

 I should recommend improvement rather than reconstruc- 

 tion, which is usually a tedious process. There are soils 

 and situations so favourable to grass, that if we leave land 

 at rest for three or four years it becomes covered without 

 any seeds having been sown, and in such cases, it will 

 answer best to break up, take a crop or two, and relay; but 

 this is exceptional, and we must remember that we thus 

 destroy, to a great extent, that mass of vegetable mould in 

 which the roots of grasses delight, and which is so difficult 

 to reform. The surface of rough land should be well har- 

 rowed over and over again until the couch grass, moss, &c., 

 are pulled out and the air let in. In a work on agricul- 

 ture, 'published in 1807, and which abounds in good prac- 

 tical matter, I find a scarifier with two sets of teeth, in- 

 vented by Mr. M'Dougall of Oxford Street, recommended 

 for this .purpose ; and when harrows are not heavy enough, 

 I would recommend the use of an ordinary scarifier to tear 

 out the moss and weeds. Constant rolling is also beneficial, 

 tending to produce an even, firm surface; good grass only 

 grows on a firm surface ; every one must have noticed the 

 superior quality of the herbage wherever a footpath crosses 

 a field. Levelling any irregularities, and sowing a few 

 seeds to replace the couch, &c., harrowed up, knocking off 

 nettles, and salting the ground, spudding up thistles, and 

 generally looking after the surface, and, above all, apply- 

 ing bulky dressings of soil, farm-yard manure, lime, &c., 

 almost anything bulky, as food for grass thus, road scrap- 

 ings from granite, or flint from clay, and from limestone ma- 

 terials on sandy land or land deficient in lime will do 

 much good." 



172. The application of manurial substances to grass 

 lands under improvement is, as might be expected, a mat- 

 ter of the greatest importance; this department, however, 

 requires to be exercised with the greatest care. To apply 

 some manures is merely throwing away money; it is diffi- 



