3 



: The finely divided animal and vegetable matters of soils are so intimately blended with tlie 



other constituents, that manure, though applied in sufficient quantity to supply its loss 



requires considerable time to bring its parts into that minute state of division in wl.; 1 : °'^' 

 f 1 ■ ^1 • 1 ■, ^ 1 /. . . iMaiuii, in wuicli It was 



tound m the rich pasture land on the hrst examination before mentioned It ' / I 



finely divided vegetable matter of the pasture land had been supplied to it (as it is indeed to 

 other pasture lands), by manure successively applied to the surface, either by the cattle which 

 grazed upon It, or by top-dressing, and divided and carried into the soil by the effects of rai^ 

 That this essential ingredient of the fertility of soils is exliausted, even by the growth of the 

 pasture grasses, when the annual supply of manure is suspended, is shewn by daily experi- 

 ence ; as in the instance of mowing a pasture for several seasons successively without any top- 

 dressing, or depasturing with cattle : the produce of grass is found to decrease annually, and 

 if the practice is continued long, it will require nearly as many years, under the best manage- 

 ment, to bring the pasture to as productive a state as it was previous to the suspension of its 

 annual supply of surface manure. This Hkewise shews, that pasture land arrives at a certain 

 degree of productiveness which it never exceeds, but at the expence of the guaiif, of its pro 

 duce; as the surface becomes unequal, the gra.s rank, of a coarse nature, and less .^rateful to 

 cattle In this case (which does sometimes happen), the grass may be brought back to its ..rate- 

 ,ful and nutritive state, by stocking the pasture sufficiently with different cattle in succession 

 throughout the season • the insufficiency of which seems to be the principal cause of the evil 

 But when such plants as knapweed fCe^^a^rm «.>r«;, different species of ..«e«., Meracmm 

 sonchus, carduus, &c. that are of no value as food for cattle, have established themselves in thesi 

 pastures, from the neglect of foul hedges and road-sides, which abundantly supply the seeds of 

 these plants, or part of them, according to the nature of the soils • the remedy of hard-stockinj, 

 and even weeding, will be found inadequate to extirpate these unprofitable plants. But to 

 return to the details of the experiment. 



The results of the last chemical examination of the soil, had shewn that it had lost a very 

 considerable portion of its decomposing vegetable and animal matters. To supply this defici- 

 ency in some measure, manure was now, for the first time, applied, and, with the wheat stub- 

 ble dug m to the depth of six inches^ the surface was then made fine with a rake, and sown 

 Avith a mixture of the following grass-seeds, at the rate of five bushels to the acre. 



Festuca pratensis, (meadow fescue); Alopecurus pratensis, (meadow foxtail) ; DactjjUs o-hme- 

 .«!«, (round cock's-foot); Holcus avenaceus (tall oat-like soft-grass); Vicia seph.n (creeping- 

 y^X^y^); Lokum perenne, (rye-grass); PMeum pratense, (meadow cat's-tail) ; Cynosurus cnstatus 

 (crested dog s-tail) ; AvenaJiavescens,l^je\\o^ o^x); Avena pratensis, (meadow oat); Festuca duri- 

 usc^aa, (hard fescue) ; Po« tri^iaUs, (smooth-stalked meadow-grass) ; FoafertUis, (fertile mea- 

 ow-grass); Foa nervata, (nerved meadow-grass); Trifolium medium, (cow clover); TrifoUum 

 ^epens, (Dutch, or white clover); Agrostis stolonifera, (stoloniferous bent, or fiorin); and Agrostis 

 palustns , {maxsh. hem) . " ^ 



The seeds of the six first mentioned grasses being much larger than the others, were first 



circumata a • I ^ ^" order to supplj the leading; roots of the perennial grasses in the ensuing seasons; a 



whirl. «.„ j-i 1 ^^^^ annual grain crops, M'hose roots do not penetrate so deep into the soil, and 



"ict» greedily exhausts manure, however gross. 



