22 Mr. Faunce de Laune's Opinions. 



let at 5s, and seven years after it was let at 20s, but the tenant 

 failed. The tithe is 7d on most of it, and rates at 2s in the 

 pound. Not much money is to be expended, and what is to be 

 done ]" 



"I advised," he says, "that the land should be frequently 

 harrowed, and in the spring grass seeds, according to my No. 3 

 Table, for light chalky soils, sown ; that it should be harrowed 

 again, and left to Nature for fourteen months ; and after that 

 time it should be lightly fed with bullocks or sheep, the animals, 

 if possible, to be fed with decorticated cotton cake." 



The accumulation of rent, rates, taxes, tithe, and 

 cost of seed vpould amount to about 30s per acre, and if 

 the land should be worth Is 6d an acre extra at the end 

 of the year, it would pa;y the interest on the capital 

 expended. He then adds the following observation, to 

 which I particularly wish to direct attention : — 



" How far the accumulation of decaying vegetable matter, 

 whether weeds or good grasses, goes towards manuring the land, 

 and more especially how much it disintegrates the soil, so as 

 to allow the inferior pasture grasses to grow, has not been a 

 subject sufficiently studied ; but the more attention and time I 

 give to this subject, the more convinced do I feel that if on very 

 poor land such courses as are described are carried out, Nature, 

 assisted in the inexpensive manner above described, can and 

 will improve the quality of the soil, and this at a less costly rate 

 than by the artificial means of huebandry. Truly, Nature can 

 be aided by supplying the seeds of those pasture grasses which 

 are most beneficial to stock, but then I consider that expendi- 

 ture should cease on such land as this. 



" On a deserted farm in Essex, which I once visited, I noticed 

 plants of cocksfoot and timothy accidentally sown, and growing 

 with the utmost vigour, being evidently supplied with nourish- 

 ment from decaying thistles and other weeds. 



" Farming, as it is practised now, is more often the act of 

 destroying natural fertility than adding to it, and it is therefore 

 no wonder that the land becomes impoverished." 



