46] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



Weeds are often suffered to grow on heaps of compost, or manure, 

 so as to perfect their seeds : this is great neglect, as such manure 

 may afterwards do as much harm as good. They should be mown, 

 and not suffered to seed, if the heap cannot be turned over ; or if 

 the growing weeds were smothered with fresh muck, or soil, or 

 lime spread over the heap, they would add to the value of the ma- 

 nure instead of fouling it and the country with their seeds. 



The true use of summer-fallow is to destroy weeds, and to apply 

 the whole force of the land to the intended crop ; but the end is frus- 

 trated unless the fallow be well managed. Ploughing in dry weather 

 has a tendency to destroy root weeds, as squitch, thistles, coltsfoot, 

 horsetail, &c. and for the two last the ploughing should be early in 

 the season (March or April) ; but the ground should afterwards be 

 harrowed down fine, and left for showers to force the vegetation of 

 seedling weeds, and when vegetated, they should be ploughed-in, 

 and the ground again harrowed, to vegetate those seeds which were 

 before too deep : some of the seedling weeds require early pulve- 

 rization to force their growth, or they will appear in the crop, and 

 sow their seeds there if not rooted out. 



GRASS : Natural Meadows and Pastures. The natural situation 

 of these is in the valleys, and on their sloping sides, where the sedi- 

 ment of water from the upland has for numberless ages been accu- 

 mulating and increasing the soil ; and the stagnant water, for an 

 equal length of time, has, in the lower parts, accumulated the in- 

 creasing roots of aquatic plants into regular beds or strata of peat. 

 By the drainage of such peat, a fermentation is brought on, and its 

 surface is converted into vegetable mould, which, by top-dressing, 

 consolidating by rolling, &c. is rendered productive of grass, and 

 becomes meadow-land. By these operations, the vegetable matter 

 of the peat (which before was in an inert state), is brought into 

 action, and an improved peat-moss in length of time becomes valu- 

 able meadow-land. 



That part of a vale which is composed of sediment of water 

 brought from the upland, is, however, generally richer, and produces 

 a better staple of herbage than that whose origin is from peat. 

 Some of the richest meadow-land in the county has originated from 

 the sediment brought thither by water, accumulating and increas- 

 ing from the beginning of time. The low-lands adjoining all our 

 rivers and brooks come naturally under this head of meadows and 

 pastures, as well as considerable tracts of flat land, which, by the 

 backing on of water in former times, have acquired a stratum of peat 



