62 Various Methods of Laying Down 



soil. I now pass to a consideration of the various 

 methods of laying down land to permanent pastoire. 



My readers will remember that in the previous chapter 

 I have given, from Arthur Young's great work, his own 

 opinion as to the various methods for laying down land 

 to grass, and also those of other agriculturists whose 

 systems are recorded by him. My present system here, 

 after the trial of several diiferent methods, is to lay 

 down in spring with a light seeding of barley or oats* — 

 a system which I have found to answer well, both as 

 regards grass and the requirements of the farm, and 

 which, 1 may observe, was condemned by Arthur 

 Yoimg as being the worst ; while the late Mr. John 

 Wilson, Berwickshire, for years adopted a system, 

 to which I shall afterwards allude, which is very 

 different from any practised elsewhere, as far as I can 

 learn. After carefully weighing the merits of the 

 various systems, I have come to the conclusion that, 

 in consequence of the variety iij both soil and climate, 

 and the varying circumstances and requirements of the 

 farmer, no general rule can be laid down as to which 

 is the best method, and that this should vary according 

 to the circumstances of each particular locality. And 

 here I am left to grope in the dark, for, from the non- 

 existence of the Government experimental farms which 

 ought to exist in each locality, there is really no means 



* With a seeding of slightly under a bushel of barley we have 

 obtained a heavy crop— or, at least, a very good one ; and that, too, 

 without injuring the grass, which would have suffered had the crop been 

 obtained with the aid of a full-seeding of barley. In the first case a 

 number of barley shoots are thrown out from each stem, and this has 

 the effect of letting more light into the ground, while, in the event 

 of the crop being laid, the shoots on the upper side of the prostrate stem 

 remain more or less erect, and certainly raised above the ground, and 

 thus do not Ue on the grass. A heavy crop of barley from a fuU seeding 

 gives many stems, with few shoots to each, and both stems and shoots 

 are of a weak character from crowding; hence, if laid, the crop goes 

 down like a thatch on the young grass, and, in any case, the young grass 

 plants are overshadowed, and thus weakened in character. 



