60 " Obseroations on British Grasses," 



not, as I strongly do, ' recommend the starting of 

 Government experimental farms, goes far in this 

 direction when he suggests—' 



" That a publication which might, by the Board of Agri- 

 culture, be rendered both a cheap and useful one, is much wanted, 

 not only in this county, but in every county in Great Britain. 

 This is a book, neither voluminous nor couched in learned phrases, 

 which would point Out all the bad practices in the difEerent 

 districts which ought to be abandoned and avoided, and all 

 those good practices in husbandry which ought to be universally 

 known and generally imitated." 



Let us now turn to the short paper to which I have 

 alluded, and which, we are informed by Keith, was 

 contributed by a gentleman of Aberdeenshire, who did 

 not wish his name to be made known. 



The paper in question is entitled " Observations on 

 British Grasses," and, though only consisting of six 

 pages, contains as full and exact an account of the 

 principles by which we should be guided when laying 

 down land to grass as could be desired. He begins by 

 animadverting on the poor qualities of ryegrass, and 

 then describes the results which follow from its use 

 when laying down light lands to grass. He shows how, 

 in the second and third year, the clovers and rye- 

 grasses decline ; how the blanks are filled with weeds 

 and bad grasses ; and how, at last, the whole land is 

 covered with a thick, but coarse, herbage ; and how 

 any attempt to arrest this natural course of things by 

 top dressing will only end in disappointment and loss. 

 He then proceeds to observe that in all such cases there 

 is a deterioration of the soil, which gradually consoli- 

 dates, as is evidenced by the flattening of the ridges 

 and the firm texture of the soil when turned up by the 

 plough. This solidity, he observes, is very difEerent 

 from the tenacity of clay, and resembles more that 

 which is observable in fiower pots whose earth has been^ 

 kept too long unchanged. He then dwells on the 

 disappearance of vegetable matter from the soil (the 



