28 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
‘Possibly there are many who disagree with this view. To 
those who are of such an opinion we cannot do better than 
refer them to their own fields for a confirmation of our state- 
ment. If they will only walk over their own layers, taking 
particular note of the crop close to the fences, and especially 
near to the gateways, they will find the set very different to 
the rest of the field. When arguing this question, even with 
practical results before us, we have sometimes heard what we 
have above alluded to attributed to moist ground; but it is 
not so, as can easily be seen if there are any low lying and 
moist places in the middle of the same field. In reality it is 
accounted for by the fact that the land has been more trodden 
and become more solid in the places we have indicated than 
in the remainder of the field, hence it becomes more suited to 
grass seeds, which like a tight bottom and a fine top. 
An instance may be quoted on this point. A few years ago 
we fed some sheep on a large oblong-shaped field. The sheep 
commenced to feed off the turnips in November, were close 
folded, and worked the short way of the field until March, 
when they finished and were withdrawn. As soon as they had 
completed a reach the plough followed (frost permitting), and 
the land was ploughed up the short way of the plough. Early 
in April, after the ploughing operations had been completed 
and sufficient dry weather had been experienced, we cultivated 
the field the long way of the plough, and athwart. The barley 
was sown, followed afterwards by clover seed and ryegrass 
mixture. When the crop had grown sufficiently to see the 
result, we found a grand layer on the end of the field where 
the sheep commenced to feed, gradually becoming worse and 
worse the nearer we approached the end where they had left 
off. At this end of the field the set was so bad that we 
ploughed the ley up. We had sown all the seed on the 
same day, and worked all the field in the same manner, 
which clearly proved to us that seeds, in some seasons, will 
