44 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
put this off until the spring, as is so often done, because it 
will be found too late to avoid the mischief which will have 
occurred, 
Although it is so desirable to have a loose bed for spring 
corn, it does not seem to be generally known that, if the 
season be dry, such corn will thrive best, and stand firmer in 
fairly compressed iand than it will in a too loose or too light 
bed. On this point we anticipate a difference of opinion, 
as the process must be modified considerably according 
to the land, circumstances, season, and situation; and we 
venture to assert that bush harrowing is a great help, not 
only to the grain crop, but also to the young grass seeds. Asa 
general rule, bush harrowing is anything but judiciously done, 
especially in the spring, and more often it tears, bruises, and 
injures the young and tender plants than it does good to the 
crop. Also in mending and trying to bury the renovating 
seeds, great judgment must be exercised, in order that more 
seedlings are not disturbed and spoilt than are added to by 
the new sowing. 
Under ordinary circumstances, and in what are known as 
the good old times, now long since departed, it would have 
been only proper to have said, first select the land which is 
suitable for a permanent pasture before you commence to lay 
down ; but nowadays, so great is the tension of depression on 
arable land, that, suitable or unsuitable, the land has to be 
laid down, or in many places allowed to go out of cultivation 
altogether. 
The land most suitable for permanent pasture seeds is that 
which has the combined qualities of being retentive, moist, 
and generous. On light lands, if the season be dry, good 
results cannot be expected, and one may find absolutely 
nothing at all unless grass seeds, which will naturally resist 
drought, be included in the mixture sown. 
On moist soil it is different. Let the land be ever so good, 
