132 PEEMANENT AND TEMPORAEY PASTURES. 



almost entirely arable or almost entirely pastoral, has failed to 

 meet the necessities of our time. What is wanted now is a 

 combination of arable and pastoral husbandry, so that when corn 

 does not pay and stock is profitable, or vice versd, each occupier 

 may obtain benefit from one branch of his business. The grazier 

 would be profited in being able to winter his own stock in- 

 stead of seUing it to make a winter's manure for the arable 

 farmer. On the other hand, the arable farmer would not then, 

 as now, be compelled to sell his stock immediately his roots 

 were exhausted, or pay the grazier to summer the animals for 

 him. When neither arable nor pastoral land yields a profit, 

 the system I am advocating has the merit of reducing expenses 

 to a minimumi 



The specialising of agriculture has been carried to injurious 

 excess. Great arable farms, without enough pasture to keep 

 half-a-dozen cows, and large grazing farms that are wanting in 

 sufficient arable to grow straw and roots for winter consumption, 

 should both be regarded as evils. The admirable system, pur- 

 sued in Lancashire and in Scotland, of annually laying away in 

 artificial grasses a proportion of each farm for a period of 

 three or four years, is so successful that it is surprising the 

 practice has not long since been adopted all over the country. 

 Instead of this, the sowing of Broad Clover alone is stiU the 

 rule, and the admixture even of Eye Grass the exception. In 

 comparatively few instances is it usual to sow with the clovers 

 such heavy cropping varieties as Eye Grass, Foxtail, and Timothy, 

 without which the best results cannot be obtained from the 

 alternate system. 



The admission of corn into this country without duty, with 

 the present high rate of labour, renders it impossible to grow 

 wheat at a profit on land heavily burdened with rates, taxes, and 

 other charges. Were the price of wheat to rise to a figure that 

 would make it a profitable crop to grow, we could almost, if 

 not entirely, supply ourselves from Enghsh soil ; but while the 

 doctrines of Free Trade prevail the farmer must turn his atten- 



