172 Failure of Young Pastures. 



Causes of Young Pastuebb 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 Royal 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 soU. 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 83) — is a case in point. When pre- 

 viously in ordinary arable cultivation, during about 45 years, it 

 never would grow grass. 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. 

 In both cases the pasture was a failure. In 1895 I again laid it 

 down to permanent pasture. The field, now five years old, has 

 been throughout a complete success. This I attribute to the 

 deep-rooting plants used, and especially the chicory, which 

 was a very large crop, and which, as described at page 83, went 

 straight down into the subsoil, after penetrating the very hard 

 pan which lay below the ploughing depth. From the facts con- 

 nected with this field previous to my occupation of it, and which 

 I have personally ascertained from the former tenant, I have 

 reason to surmise that the failure of land to grow grass ai\d 

 clover weU, either when in rotation husbandry or being laid down 

 to permanent pasture, must often be owing to hard pans below 

 the ploughing depth, and this, of course, makes it the more 

 advisable that plants like chicory and bumet, which can penetrate 

 the hardest pans (vide page 83), should be freely used. But 

 besides the evils arising from hard pans, there is the fact that 

 our soils are not kept sufficiently open owing to the deficiency of 

 humus in the land, and hence the roots cannot readily traverse 

 the soil, which, as Dr. Voelcker has shown, often contains 

 enough plant food if it were fully available for the use of the 

 plant. If, then, you do not give the plant a soil well opened up, 

 and kept open by humus, you must spend more money in manure. 

 In other words, as far as the plant is concerned, a small quantity 



