360 RUNNING UP TO WOOD. 



used is to fence in small pieces, and then stock hard 

 with sheep. Feed it down till no green thing remains ; 

 then turn the sheep oft' days and on nights till Septem- 

 ber ; then harrow the land with a sharp harrow, and 

 sow on grass-seed, keeping the cattle off the remainder 

 .of the season." 



" It will improve an old pasture merely to plough and 

 re-seed it, without manure," says another; " but this is 

 a slow mode, and not to be recommended where it is 

 possible to apply some sort of dressing. A better 

 method is, without doubt, to plant for a year or two, 

 manuring well, before sowing grass-seed. The soil, by 

 being thus thoroughly stirred and exposed to atmos- 

 pheric influences, will give a sweeter grass, and per- 

 haps more of it. But it is not always convenient to 

 plant a part of a pasture. In such cases great benefit 

 would result from simply ploughing, manuring, and 

 seeding to grass immediately." 



But perhaps the best disposition that can be made of 

 many of our poor, thin pasture lands, and one which 

 has incidentally been alluded to, is to take the cattle 

 from them entirely, and cultivate them with forest 

 trees. This is frequently recommended, in answer to 

 the question proposed in the circular. One farmer 

 speaks in the following words : " Old, worn-out pasture 

 lands, that cannot be renovated by gypsum or ashes, 

 had better be suffered to run up to wood. Pine lands 

 can be seeded in the fall with a crop of winter rye, or 

 without. Pine-seed can be obtained by taking pains to 

 collect the burrs before they are open, and drying them 

 in some place where they can be threshed. This is 

 white-pine-seed year." 



This, I am convinced, will be found to be perfectly 

 practicable, and a rapid growth of pine wood, inter- 

 mixed, as it should always be, with some deciduous 



