Grazing from Very Poor Lands. 31 



It will be observed that, in the case of the field 

 from which the hay was taken, the field was cropped 

 witli turnips after being ploughed up, and the following 

 year laid down again to grass with a crop, and was 

 not put through our usual four-crop rotation — i.e., a 

 turnip crop, a cereal one, another turnip crop, and 

 laying down again with a cereal crop ; and this course 

 was adopted because of the extreme poverty of the 

 land. Indeed, in the case of such poor land it is 

 doubtful whether the land, when again laid down, 

 should be laid down with a crop ; but this is a point 

 which will again be referred to when I come to weigh, 

 in a subsequent chapter, the various methods of laying 

 down to grass. 



In the year following the hay crop of two tons an 

 acre, the field was grazed with sheep and lambs. And 

 this year (1898) the field (much to my astonishment, 

 after having yielded such a hay crop, and so much good 

 grazing the year afterwards) has again exceeded ray 

 utmost expectations, showing that the manurial effects 

 of the ploughed-up turf is still going on. And I say 

 my utmost expectations, because, in the case of such 

 poor land, to which no manure had been added since 

 the artificials supplied with the turnip ci'op, I certainly 

 expected that the grass would have much declined in 

 the third year. 



The adjacent field (the Outer Kaimrig) of 22 acres 

 did so well, in consequence of the addition of burnet, 

 chicory, etc., that I had determined on leaving it in 

 permanent pasture ; but, moss having made its appear- 

 ance, it was ploughed up at the end of 1895, and cropped 

 with turnips, preparatory to being laid down to grass 

 on the system previously recommended — i.e., taking first 

 a turnip crop, then oats, then turnips, and then laying 

 down with a thin seeding of oats to lie for an indefinite 

 number of years. On ploughing up the turf, it was 

 found to be so thick and strong that I am now inclined 

 to think that it would be better, in the case of land left 



