127 



pense to bring them near, in some degree, to an equivalent state of productiveness V i 

 ul, be eff^ted b, tbe application of large quantities of cla,, .„a b ::~;:^Z 

 the sod. (See remarks on th.s subject in the Introduction). But though plr hungr/s , 

 sods cannot, economically, be improved in that degree as to fit them for the producdi of t 

 supenor grasses, hke peat-soils, which in their natural or unimproved state are even less v^ 

 able than the poor sandy sods ; nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence from practice t 

 that such soils may be converted to tillage for so.ne years, and returned again to ;ass''ri 

 h,ghly improved state, yielding a produce of double the value of that they originali; afforded 

 I have witnessed improvements to this degree, on such soils, in the farms of His Grace the Duke 

 of Bedford, at Woburn. In the fourth volume of Communications to the Board of Ao-riculture 

 there .s a vanety of evidence to the same effect. • If it should appear, however, from ^he resuU: 

 of the experiments here made on the grasses natural to these soils, of which an account will 

 be found m the following pages, that the kinds of grasses employed in the improvements now 

 alluded to, were not the best fitted for the soils in cpestion, it will follow that such improve 

 ments may be greatly extended, by adopting those grasses best fitted for the sod, and that with" 

 out any additional trouble or expense. 



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