AGRICULTURE. 



From whatever cause land may be 

 overrun with moss plants, or covered 

 with fern, rushes, and ant-hills, it should 

 be subjected for some time to the plough, 

 ^s no other method is equally useful to 

 prepare for permanently ameliorating its 

 pasture. 



To prepare arable land for grass, it 

 must be cleaned from weeds, and well 

 manured, just in the same manner as that 

 which is required for a crop of grain. 

 Excepting upon stiff clays, the most eli- 

 gible preparation for grass is a crop of 

 turnips, consumed by cattle in the field ; 

 the ground being thus at once manured 

 and cleaned. Where lands are broken 

 up expressly for the purpose of improv- 

 ing the pasture, the turnips scarcely fail 

 to succeed, through the manure afforded 

 so abundantly by the fresh turf; and the 

 cattle deriving, from the abundant crop 

 consequent on this circumstance, a plen- 

 tiful food, are thus enabled, the more 

 extensively, to improve the soil by dung. 

 On the clay land, the soil should be very 

 liberally manured in spring or autumn ; it 

 ought to be ploughed once in autumn, and 

 three or four times more in summer, pre- 

 viously to the period of sowing the seeds, 

 which should take place in August. As 

 to the much agitated question of sowing 

 grass seeds with or without a crop of 

 corn, it may be observed, that it is impos- 

 sible for lands intended for grass crops, 

 or meadow, to possess too high a state of 

 richness, and that, after the soil is im- 

 proved with a view to its permanent fer- 

 tility in grass, to weaken it by a crop of 

 corn appears little better than blind or 

 infatuated counteraction. If, however, 

 the practice be persevered in, which has 

 so generally been followed in this respect, 

 barley should be the grain preferred, as 

 springing up with a slight stalk, and not 

 overshadowing and smothering the 

 grass plants, and also as being the incum- 

 brance to those plants more speedily re- 

 moved than any other. 



Whether the grass seeds be sown in 

 August after a fallow, or with corn in 

 spring, all trampling by horses or cattle 

 should be effectually prevented. Every 

 thing, therefore, should be kept out from 

 it, both during autumn and winter. Not 

 only is the tender soil, which is extremely 

 susceptible of injury, thus secured from it, 

 but the pasturage in the spring is of pro- 

 portionally more value for not having been 

 eaten off in autumn, and affords a most 

 valuable early bite for the ewes and lambs. 



The proper treatment of leys during 

 the lirst year is, to feed them with sheep., 



unless, after a crop of hay be taken from 

 them, vast quantities of manure be spread 

 over their surface. 



The chief food of cattle consisting of 

 grasses, their importance is as obvious as 

 it is great, and the distinguishing and se- 

 lecting them cannot be too fully attended 

 to. By this care the best grasses, and in 

 the greatest abundance that the land ad- 

 mits of, are secured ; while for want of 

 this attention, pastures are either filled 

 with weeds, or bad and inappropriate 

 grasses. The number of grasses fit, or at 

 least necessary, for the purposes of cul- 

 ture, is but small, scarcely exceeding half 

 a score, and by the careful separation and 

 sowing of the seeds of these, the hus- 

 bandman would soon be enabled to ac- 

 commodate the varieties of his soil, each 

 with the herbage best adapted to it, the 

 advantage of which would infinitely ex- 

 ceed the trouble necessary for its accom- 

 plishment. Were a great variety of grain 

 to be sown in the same inclosure, the ab- 

 surdity would be universally ridiculed; 

 and scarcely less absurd and ridiculous 

 is the common practice, of indiscrimi- 

 nately sowing grass seeds from the foul 

 hay rack, including a mixture of almost 

 every species of grass seed and rubbish. 



The species of grass appropriated to 

 any particular soil or application being 

 determined upon, its seeds cannot be sown 

 too plentifully, and no economy less de- 

 serving the name can possibly exist, than 

 the being sparing of grass seeds. The 

 seeds of grain may easily be sown too 

 thickly ; but with respect to those of 

 grass, it is scarcely capable of occurring. 

 The smaller the stem, the more accepta- 

 ble it is to cattle ; and when the seeds, 

 particularly of some grasses, are thinly 

 scattered, their stems tend, as it is called, 

 to wood. 



The most valuable grass to be cut 

 green, for summer's food, is red clover, 

 which also is an admirable preparation for 

 wheat. To have it in perfection, the 

 weeds must be cleared, and the land har- 

 rowed as finely as possible. The surface 

 should also be smoothed with alight roll- 

 er. The seeds should likewise be well 

 covered with earth, as should all small 

 seeds, notwithstanding the common opi- 

 nion to the contrary. From the middle 

 of April to that of May is the proper sea- 

 son for sowing it. Although it will last 

 three years, if cut down green, the safest 

 course is to let it stand but one. It is 

 luxuriant upon a rich soil, whether of clay, 

 loam, or gravel, and will grow even upon 

 a moor, for a. wet soil it is totallv unfit. 



