52 Preserving Grass for Winter Use. 



and Arthur Young, under the heading of fog, observes 

 that it is a term given in South Wales to the growth 

 of the whole year kept till the ensuing winter and 

 spring, a practice commonly found nowhere else. On 

 dry sound land that will not poach, the whole crop of 

 grass is kept in Cardigan without being mown or fed ; 

 stock of all sorts fed in depth of winter without any 

 other food, and always in excellent order. It kills moss, 

 and much improves the pastures ; nor will an acre of 

 the best hay support so much cattle as one acre of fog. 

 The grass is much improved by the quantity of seeds 

 that fall. 



As regards improving a meadow. Young recommends 

 that it should be harrowed and top-dressed with earth 

 or road-scrapings, and then sown with winter tares and 

 white clover — a practice, he says, known in Norfolk 

 150 years ago. Very good results have been obtained 

 from it, and the seed may be sown as late as the middle 

 of May. 



I now turn to Young's experience as to laying down 

 land to grass. There is much said in favour of sowing 

 grass with rape, to be fed off by sheep. In Yorkshire 

 Colonel Vavasour laid down with buckwheat sown in the 

 end of June, and harvested end of September, and this 

 plan turned out to be very successful. At Felthorpe, in 

 Norfolk, buckwheat was considered superior to any 

 other crop in which to sow grass seeds. It affords good 

 shelter, and, being late sown, gives a good opportunity 

 for destroying weeds. Young laid down a field to grass 

 (chiefly burnet) in 1769, which did very well, though 

 the buckwheat was a very great crop — 49 bushels an 

 acre. Buckwheat he considered the best crop with 

 which to lay down, because it was not exhaustive sown 

 thinly, and yet from branching, and size of leaf, joins 

 so close at the top that the young grasses have plenty of 

 room ; they are quite sheltered from the sun in a 

 drought, and, being sown so late as June, and even part 

 of July, time for much tillage is afforded. Clover does 



