50 THE MANURING OF GRASS LAND [CH. 



must have sufficient depth of soil, enough, but not too much, 

 water, and sufficient lime to ensure that the soil is not sour. 

 Further, it wants some cultivation: rolling, harrowing, etc. It 

 will tolerate more neglect than other crops, and usually get it; 

 but it also responds very well to good treatment. The grass 

 land must, therefore, be examined carefully to see if the conditions 

 are favourable to growth, and, if not, how they can be improved. 

 Mole draining and cleaning out water-courses may be very helpful, 

 and liming and suitable manuring may do much. But it is not 

 advisable to spend too much on manuring grass land unless there 

 is some reasonable likelihood of effecting sufficient improvement 

 to pay the cost. Fortunately large areas of grass now very poor 

 can be considerably improved with profit to the farmer and benefit 

 to the country. 



The first thing to be done is to decide exactly what the grass 

 land is to be whether pasture for grazing, or meadow to be laid 

 in for hay. It cannot be both, and the best results are only 

 attained by making a plan, and sticking to it. There may be 

 something to be said for grazing the aftermath or for occasionally 

 laying in a poor or medium pasture for hay (though a good pasture 

 should never be treated in this way), but as a general rule each 

 field should be kept to one purpose only. 



Hay Land. 



Hay land may be satisfactorily manured either with dung or 

 with artificials, and the choice must be dictated by circumstances. 



Where dung is available. Where plenty of dung is available 

 it may advantageously be applied to the hay land at the rate of 

 10 or 12 tons per acre in autumn. It may be given as frequently 

 as every year with good results (see p. 54), but usually there is 

 only sufficient for dressings in every fourth season. In this 

 case something should be given in the intervening years, and 

 on the whole the most satisfactory fertiliser is basic slag, as this 

 supplies the constituent of which dung contains least, viz. phos- 

 phate, and also lime. The improvement obtained is shown in 

 the following experiment made by the Cambridge Agricultural 

 Department at Shenley, Herts 1 . 



1 Cambridge Reports, Guide to Experiments, 1905, p. 66. 



