Experiences up to the end of October, 1904. 145 



suggest this from having observed how cocksfoot spread in the 

 southerly portion of the Alghope field from a strip cut off for planting. 

 In cases where the winds are not strong, it would probably answer 

 better to enclose a strip of about an acre in the middle of the field, 

 and then shift the hurdles each year. By this process the whole field 

 could be cheaply re seeded, and, as I have elsewhere shown, letting 

 up the grass would destroy the moss, which commonly exists to a 

 greater or less degree in nearly all old pastures, and would heavily 

 re-seed the enclosed portion, as letting up the grass opens the ground 

 and favours the germination of the seed. 



Importance of Soiling Land when Laying Down to Grass. — Grass 

 seeds often fail from the want of moisture close to the surface. This 

 want can be diminished by fine tilth and heavy rolling. Both tend 

 to raise water from below by capillary (from capilla, a hair) attraction. 

 This is explained by the fact that if you immerse a tube of very small 

 bore, and open at both ends, in a vessel of water the water within 

 the tube will rise to a sensible height above the surface of the water 

 in the vessel, and the smaller the tube the higher will the water 

 within it rise. On this well-established principle depends the rising 

 of water through the interstices of the soil, and the smaller these are 

 made by fine tilth, and the compression of the land by rolling, the 

 more freely will water rise to the surface. Per contra, there is hardly 

 any capillary attraction through dust, a's the spaces between the 

 particles are too wide, and hence a mulch of dust keeps moisture in 

 the soil — in other words, the moisture being kept further from the 

 surface cannot readily evaporate. A fine surface soil, then, when in 

 a loose state, conserves water by preventing it rising to the surface ; 

 while you have only to roll it if you wish to bring moisture to the 

 surface to aid in the germination of the seed and the support of the 

 young plants which, from lack of moisture, are apt to be starved 

 to death. 



Causes of Young Pastures Failing. — When they do, it is commonly 

 attributed to want of sufficient food for the plants. I believe it is 

 more often owing to defective soil conditions. Dr. Voelcker, chemist 

 of the Koyal Agricultural Society of England, tells me that he has 

 often been consulted on the point, and on analysing the soil found 

 that there was plenty of plant food in the land if the roots could 

 only have freely travelled through the soil. I have the following 

 reason for believing that the hard pan which sometimes exists just 

 below the ploughing depth is often the cause of failure, partly 

 because the roots of grasses and clovers cannot penetrate it, and 

 partly because it checks the rise of water from the subsoil. The 

 Longshot field — Crookhouse farm {vide page 82) — is a case in 

 point. When in ordinary arable cultivation, it never would grow 

 grass during about 45 years backwards. I laid it down twice to 

 permanent pasture, and in the second case with an excellent mixture, 

 but which did not contain any of the deep-rooting plants I now use. 



K 



