CHAPTER VI. 



FORAGE PLANTS. 



" I^TEVER revert to the past " seems rather a whole- 

 J-i some maxim. When I first heard it, many- 

 years ago, I thought it a very strange one, but I do 

 not do so now, as a more extended experience has 

 shown me that, by referring to the past, you are often 

 liable to fall into a trap rather than into the hands 

 of a tnistworthy guide ; for there are two great 

 dangers in relying on the past action of our prede- 

 cessors — the one, as I have previously pointed out, 

 that it is difficult to find any set of present circum- 

 stances exactly on all fours with those of the past ; 

 the other, that what has been done in the past may 

 have been done, not on sound principles as to what 

 was best to be done, but for some other reason alto- 

 gether, and that the action taken on that reason may 

 be partially wrong. When, for instance, I began to 

 turn my attention to farming here, I was struck with 

 the fact that the farmers usually began their nineteen 

 years' leases by a heavy application of lime, though this 

 is easily washed out of the soil, and should be applied 

 little and often, and I was told that small apphcations 

 were of no use. But I found on inquiry that in 

 Durham, where eight-year leases were usual, the farmers 

 limed every eight years, while in Gloucestershire the 

 custom was to lime in small quantities every four 

 years. But the explanation of the action of the Scotch 

 farmers really was that, while they thought they were 

 carrying out the .results of a well-found experience, 

 they were simply blindly working by a custom which 



