100 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEAEY PASTUEES. 



starved, just as Tussock Grass, rushes, and sedges prove the need 

 of drainage. Thistles, docks, coltsfoot, and other large weeds 

 may also abound, and they cannot be eradicated without the 

 constant use of the scythe and spud. In a foul pasture the weeds 

 are generally so mixed up with what good herbage there may be, 

 that they can only be improved out of existence as better grasses 

 are induced to take their places. A heavy dressing of salt ap- 

 phed after weeds have been cut will kill a lot of them, and an 

 application of gas-lime has been known to effect a surprising 

 change in the herbage of an inferior pasture. The folding of 

 sheep thickly will also produce marked benefit on poor upland 

 grass if the animals are at the same time fed with corn or cake. 

 They should be penned on the ground long enough to clear the 

 crop, and then many weeds will be killed outright. This practice 

 is very different in its effects from that of giving sheep the run of 

 the land. Whatever discourages the growth of rough herbage 

 encourages that which is better. On the other hand, however 

 good a pasture may be, it has only to be treated with a policy of 

 masterly inactivity, and in time it will revert to the waste con- 

 dition of a moorland. 



A succession of wet summers is another fruitful source of in- 

 jury to pastures. The bulk of herbage forced from them during 

 warm damp seasons tends greatly to their impoverishment, and 

 some of the grasses which are more especially adapted for dry 

 soils will probably perish. Well-drained land naturally suffers 

 least. Land not so well drained becomes sour and unwholesome, 

 and only the sedges and coarse water-grasses survive. 



Hitherto nothing has been said about seed, and it may be 

 frankly admitted that with liberal management it is quite possible 

 to restore the fertility of a pasture without sowing seed at all. 

 But it will take time, perhaps many years, and it appears to me 

 to be a penny-wise and pound-foohsh procedure to occupy a long 

 period in making an improvement which might be effected in a 

 single season at a very trifling outlay beyond that necessarily 

 incurred in carrying out improvements already suggested. In 



