The Lessening of Moss in Pastures. 69 



sufficiently kept open by the roots of plants. I was 

 particularly struck with this fact in the case of a field 

 iu an alluvial flat which I had laid down to permanent 

 pasture. On one side of the field there was a knoll of 

 about six or seven acres, and, after sowing the whole field 

 with the grass mixture suitable for such land, I added, 

 to the land of tlie knoll, burnet, chicory, sheep's parsley, 

 ribgrass, yellow suckling clover, and kidney vetch. 

 These not only aerated the land, but filled it up closely 

 with plants, and the result was that the poorer land of 

 the knoll surpassed the land of the rest of the field, 

 and was quite free from moss, which soon began to 

 appear on the land sown with the ordinary mixture 

 suitable for the soil. This is a point to which I shall 

 again allude when treating of the quantity of seed 

 which it is desirable to sow, but I may add here that 

 I was lately struck, iu the case of a very mossy field, by 

 the eff"ect thistles have, evidentlj'- from their aerating 

 the soil, in suppressing moss. On our hill pastures the 

 barest places have always most moss, and such bareness 

 is really owing to the almost exclusive close grazing 

 of pastures with sheep. It seems to me quite clear 

 that by increasing cattle and diminishing sheep you 

 would certainly lessen moss, and much improve the 

 pastures, as letting up the grass has a tendency to keep 

 the ground more open, and the land therefore better 

 aerated {vide Appendix III.) 



We have seen that it is advisable, for the reasons 

 given, to take hay the first year, and that in the 

 second the pasture should be grazed with young cattle. 

 In the third year it should be grazed with young cattle 

 in the spring, and some sheep may be put on in the 

 autumn if it suits the plans of the farmer, and iu the 

 fourth year with either sheep or cattle, though if with 

 the former it is advisable to let the grass have a good 

 start in the spring, both for the sake of the pasture, 

 and with the view of getting the most food from it in 

 the season. We are often told that the requirements 



