Mr. Faunce de Laurie's Advice,. 23 



tration given on page 4. In this connectioii I may quote 

 the following advice given by my late friend, Mr. Faunce 

 dfe Laune, to a correspondent, under the following 

 circumstances : 



The land, as to which his' opinion was sought, was 

 thus described to him : — 



" The land is desperately poor. land. It has been let lately at 

 2s. 6d. per acre, and the tenant is leaving ; before that it was let 

 at 5s., and seven years earlier it was let at 20s., but the tenant 

 failed. The tithe is 7d. on most of it, and rates at 2s. in the 

 pound. Not much money is to be expended, and what is to be 

 done ? " 



" I advised," he says, " that the land should be frequently 

 harrowed, and ia the spring grass seeds, according to my No. 3 

 Table, for light chalky soUs, sown ; that it should be harrowed 

 again, and left to Nature for fourteen months; and after that 

 time it should be lightly fed with btdlocks or sheep, the animals, 

 if possible, to be fed with decorticated cotton cake," 



The accuraulation of rent, rates, taxes, tithe, and cost 

 of seed would amount to about 30s.. per apre, and if the 

 land should be worth Is. 6d. an acre extra at the end of 

 the year, it would pay the i^^terest on the capital 

 expended. He then adds the following observation, to 

 which I particularly wish to direct attention : — 



'■ How far the accumulation of decaying vegetable matter, 

 whether weeds or good grasses, goes towards manuring the land, 

 and more especially how much it disintegrates the soil, so as to 

 allow the inferior pasture grasses to grow, has jiot been a subject 

 sufficiently studied ; but the more attention and time 1 give to 

 this subject, the more convinced do I feel that if on very poor 

 land such courses as are described are carried out. Nature, 

 assisted in the inexpensive manner above described, can and will 

 improve the quality of the soil, and this at a less costly rate than 

 by the artificial means of husbandry. Truly, Nature can be 

 aided by supplying the seeds of those pasture grasses which are 

 most beneficial to ^stock, but then I consider that expenditure 

 should cease on such laud as .this. 



'f On a deserted i&xm in Essex, whicb I once visited, I noticed, 

 plants of cocksfoot and timothy accidentally sown, and growing 



