6f5 Pastures should not be Overstocked. 



And when I say carefully I mean that the land should 

 be rolled with careful regard to the weather and the 

 state of the land, which ie very apt to be too damp or 

 too dry, and I have had land of my own injured by 

 being rolled when in too damp a state. Having the 

 land well rolled enables a shower of rain to be much 

 more effectual than it would otherwise be. When the 

 soil is tinrolled, and therefore loose, the water of a 

 shower would quicklj' evaporate and be easily cariied 

 away by the wind, whereas the rolled soil would cause 

 a shower to go much further in supplying the plants 

 with moisture. RoUing would sometimes have the 

 effect of keeping plants alive which would otherwise 

 die. When my steward mentioned to a farmer visitor 

 the importance of rolling, he said : " Oh, we have no 

 time for rolling." This shows the want of agricultural 

 instruction. 



A third, and very important error, is commonly com- 

 mitted by overstocking the land early in the spring 

 following the year in which the grass seeds have been 

 sown, for Sinclair " found, on repeated trials, that crop- 

 ping seedling grasses before they had produced flowers 

 had the effect of retarding and weakening the after- 

 growth of the plant for that season very much." And 

 on referring the point to Mr. Garruthers — botanist of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England — he replied 

 as follows : — 



" The after-growth of grasses depends on the strength of the 

 plant, and especially on the hold it has on the ground. Up to 

 flowering the plant is making itself above and below ground. 

 Flowering and fruiting are exhaustive processes, and while this 

 goes on the plant does not extend itself; but the after-growth 

 of the plant will be improved by its growing as long as it can 

 up to flowering." 



And it is for these reasons that I prefer to take a crop 

 of hay in the first year, and this seems to be the usual 

 practice, if I may judge by the opinions collected on 



