204 Concluding Remarks. 



then," I remarked, " something which (jorresponds to the dry 

 grass as turnips do to hay." " That's just it," he replied. I then 

 sent to Mr. James Hunter, of Chester, for a list of all those 

 plants which stock would eat, and which would not dry up in 

 summer, and my subsequent study of the consequential results 

 arising from their use showed me their immense valu^ in at once 

 tiEing the soU, adding to our stores of reliable food for stock, 

 deeply manuring the land, and improving the health of crops and 

 stock. 



One word more. There are large areas of land in these islands 

 steadily going from bad to worse. They are not suitable for per- 

 manent pasture, and still less are they suited at present prices 

 for profitable arable cultivation under the old system. Much of 

 what is still kept in arable is steadily declining in value, and no 

 wonder, for, to quote again my late friend, Mr. Paunce de Laune, 

 " farming, as it is practised now, is more often the means of 

 destroying natural fertility" — he means by running out all the 

 vegetable matter in the soU — " than adding to it, and it is 

 therefore no wonder that the land becomes impoverished." From 

 the impoverishment of the soil, and large areas being allowed to 

 what is called " fall down " to profitless pasture, cottages are 

 being rapidly emptied, and the whole conditions and prospects of 

 our agriculture are most unsatisfactory. How this condition of 

 things may be ameliorated I have shown in these pages. It now 

 only remains for the Government to propagate what I have 

 eventually, after many years of labour, proved to the hilt. 



