M.— AGRICULTURE 255 



last August) with Italian rye-grass has done best of all.' ^^ Mr. Wilks, of 

 Whartons Park, Bewdley, Worcestershire, who after prolonged attempts 

 at improving the poor permanent grass on his farm is now rapidly getting 

 into the ley system, says that during last back end (1937) the whole of 

 his grazing came from leys and newly grassed areas. The old permanent 

 pastures did not recover from the late summer and early autumn drought 

 of that year, and the leys carried all the stock from July onwards. During 

 the drought of this spring his position was never difficult, the maiden leys 

 providing an abundance of good pasture, and these after being grazed 

 into May will be mown for hay. 



In a recent letter to me Mr. Wilks concludes with this peculiarly 

 significant statement : 'An interesting sidelight is that the arable crops on 

 land recently ploughed out have stood the drought much better than those 

 on the stale old arable . . . the whole thing is complementary and 

 balanced.' 



The experiences of Colonel Pollitt, of Harnage Grange, Cressage, 

 Shropshire, are in keeping with those of Mr. Muirhead and Mr. Wilks. 

 Colonel Pollitt has also sown out early in May without a nurse crop 

 and has been able to start serious grazing (ewes and lambs) in the first 

 week of July, thus obtaining valuable young grass at what is often a 

 critical time of the year. On a field thus treated Colonel Pollitt also 

 wintered cattle continuously from November i to May i, and he 

 informs me that there was no poaching except at the gate. 



The ley, furthermore, affords great scope for special treatment with a 

 view to providing grass when it will be most wanted. Ley grass put up 

 for the winter carries green and protein-efficient into February, March 

 and April altogether more effectively than does permanent grass, and this 

 is perhaps one of the greatest merits of the ley, and a merit which by 

 virtue of further research in plant breeding in the direction of producing 

 winter green and winter growing strains is likely to become increasingly 

 pronounced. ^^ 



The employment of different seed mixtures with a view to giving 

 grass more particularly at different and explicit periods of the year affords 

 additional scope to the ley-farmer. Thus at Aberystwyth we have found 

 that a mixture consisting predominantly of Danish meadow fescue and 

 Aberystvs^th S. 48 timothy gives exceptionally good grazing during 

 July and August. On this and similar points there is, however, need for 

 greatly extended investigation. 



I have now made my case for ley-farming, but I am not at present 

 claiming that all permanent grass should be brought under the plough ; 

 before that claim could be substantiated we want a proper survey and a 

 great deal more experimenting. Apart from steepness, boulders and 

 such like, low rainfall and heavy clays present their special problems. 

 As to the clays, the fact that it is a perfectly sound procedure to re-grass 



^^ This performance of Italian rye-grass is on all fours with results obtained 

 for the past four years with Italian rye-grass at the farm of the Cahn Hill Improve- 

 ment Scheme. 



'* See R. G. Stapledon, ' Immature Grass and Young Swards.' Part I, /. 

 Minist. Agric, Vol. 44, pp. 317-29, July 1937; Part II. /. Minist. Agric. 

 Vol. 44, pp. 442-9, Aug. 1937. 



