254 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



improved and leafy strains of grasses — all these taken together, if they 

 are to be used to best advantage, must inevitably spell novel rotations. 

 One of the greatest merits of improved technique based on modern 

 facilities for putting down leys on upturned sods, and without resort to 

 covering crops, is that by the periodic adoption of this method (that is 

 to say, as and when necessary) the farmer is enabled to take his leys 

 around the farm sufficiently quickly and before there is any sward 

 deterioration, and in sympathy with the lime demands of his animals 

 and the lime requirements of his soil. 



It is somewhat remarkable that so little exact experimental or statistical 

 evidence exists for comparing the yield of leys, either in grass, milk or 

 meat, with permanent pastures on similar soils and under precisely 

 comparable conditions. We have Mr. Roberts's evidence from Bangor,' 

 which is in favour of the ley, and not a little evidence from Aberystwyth, 

 also in favour of the ley.^ Evidence from grass less favourable to the 

 ley has also been brought forward by various authors. The most con- 

 vincing evidence, however, is the performance and experiences of 

 competent practitioners in the art of ley-farming, and thus the results 

 of investigations and inquiries conducted by Mr. John Orr, lately of 

 Manchester University, are particularly informative and are wholly in 

 favour of the ley.^ 



At present I am engaged upon collecting the material for writing a 

 book on ley-farming. As a preliminary I sent out a questionnaire and 

 have had a most helpful and gratifying response from farmers. The 

 evidence from the replies received is overwhelmingly in favour of the 

 ley, great stress being laid on the improved quality and stock-carrying 

 capacity of the ley grass compared to the quondam permanent pasture, 

 and the extended grazing season provided by the leys. The leys would 

 seem, however, to have justified themselves not only in an extended 

 grazing season, but by virtue of giving grass at periods within the grazing 

 season proper when owing to weather or other conditions grass is liable 

 to go short. Thus Major Dugdale of Llwyn, Montgomeryshire, who is 

 rapidly and methodically (at the rate of about fifty acres per annum) 

 converting the permanent grass of his farm into a sequence of leys by 

 the methods I have discussed, informs me that during the early and 

 unprecedented drought of this year the leys were invaluable, ' and thanks 

 to them my ewes and lambs which had a turn at them all have done better 

 than usual and have not suffered from the drought.' Mr. R. L. Muirhead, 

 of Borsdane Farm, Westhoughton, Lancashire, who is well known for 

 his enterprise in ley-farming, speaks equally highly of the value and 

 performance of his leys during the past critical months, and particularly 

 interesting is his remark that ' the younger fields stood up to the dry 

 conditions better than the others, and the youngest of all (sown 



' E. J. Roberts, ' I. The effect of wild white clover on the live weight incre- 

 ments from a temporary pasture. II. A comparison of temporary and permanent 

 pasture,' Welsh J. Agric, Vol. 8, pp. 84-93 (1932). E. J. Roberts, ' Comparison 

 of (a) an old with a temporary pasture and (6) two temporary pastures, from one 

 of which wild white clover had been omitted at seeding down,' Welsh J. Agric, 

 Vol. II, pp. 132-9 (1935)- 



' See R. G. Stapledon, The Hill Lands of Britain, London, 1937. 



* See John Orr, ' Grass and Money,' Scot. J. Agric, Vol. 20, pp. 31-40 (1937). 



