Moss. Hay and Pasture. 177 



Moss. — Important Eesult in Outee Kaimbig.— This field 

 was laid down to grass in 1890, but with only a most trifling 

 amount of deep-rooters — 1 lb. of chicory, 3 lbs. of bumet, and 

 1 lb. of kidney vetch. Four years afterwards it showed so much 

 moss that I ordered it to be ploughed up. It was re-laid again 

 in 1899 — in 1903, and next year, 1904, (when the field was 

 ploughed up) there was no moss. I attribute this happy change 

 partly to a large supply of deep-rooters being used, and partly to 

 the vegetable matter from the ploughed-up turf. 



Moss. — ^Letting up Foggbd-tjp, oe Mossed-up, Hill Pas- 

 tuees. — ^It has been previously pointed out that letting-up 

 pastures destroys the moss, and it would be important to experi- 

 ment as to how far it would pay to let up portions of hill pasture 

 by keeping stock off till the autumn, or by hurdling off a section 

 of a pasture each year. 



Dr. Home, in " The Principles of Agriculture and Vegeta- 

 tion," Edinburgh, 1757, p. 159, mentions a method for desWying 

 moss, and recommends that a pasture should be shut up from 

 May 15th to the beginning of December, and then grazed from 

 that time to April, after which the field is to be shut up for hay. 

 "The fog," he says, "being so long covered by two successive 

 crops of grass, is cut off from the benefit of the air, and so dies." 



Safety of the System as eegaeds Hay and Pastuee. — 

 One of the most experienced farmers on Bowmont Water once 

 told me that he estimated that they suffered from drought one 

 season out of three. Since taking up the Clifton-on-Bowmont 

 farm, in 1887, our hay crops have always been good, though we 

 have had some seasons of severe drought, besides other minor 

 droughts. In one of these, with the old system, much of the 

 stock would have had to be sent off the farm ; the flocks in the 

 neighbourhood greatly suffered, while we had abundant feed, in 

 consequence of the drought-resisting nature of the mixtures 

 used, and it may be mentioned that the stock kept consider- 

 ably exceeded that formerly kept on the farm previous to my 

 occupation of it. 



