18 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



clovers, and will produce abundant crops. The fact that heavy 

 soils are expensive to cultivate as arable is an additional reason 

 why they should be laid down to grass. Again, if there be the 

 choice of two fields, one sloping to the north and the other to 

 the south, preference should be given to the former, because 

 it will be less liable to burn in a hot summer. 



Drainage has been referred to in the preceding chapter, 

 and is a matter of the utmost consequence. If the land is 

 naturally well drained, there will be a fortunate saving of 

 expense, but otherwise this operation should be preliminary 

 to all else. 



Beyond question, the very best preparation for a spring 

 sowing of permanent grass seeds is a bare fallow in the 

 previous summer. This affords the opportunity of destroying 

 successive crops of indigenous annual weeds, and it is im- 

 portant that these should be got rid of by scarifying and 

 dragging rather than by ploughing, for the plough is only too 

 certain to bring to the surface a fresh stock of weed seeds 

 ready to germinate in the following spring. Many influences 

 may aid or hinder the work, which depends not only on the 

 character of the soil and the previous cropping, but also on 

 the atmospheric conditions which prevail while the operations 

 are in progress. Here the advantage of a bare fallow is 

 realised, because the cultivator has the whole summer and 

 early autumn in which to accomplish the task. 



Deep ploughing should be carried out first, and if sub- 

 soiling is considered necessary, there is all the greater reason 

 for doing it early. Then, by means of the scarifier and the 

 roller, the soil can be cleaned and so far rendered fit to 

 receive the seeds that in the following spring only one or 

 two turns with the harrow will be required to perfect the 

 seed-bed. There are good reasons for insisting on thorough 

 preparation of the land in the first instance. Careless 

 and half-hearted work wastes both seed and labour, and 

 the routine has to be attempted a second time under great 



