98 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



the question in favour of corn. Of course a corn crop will 

 levy the usual tax upon the land, and it should be clearly- 

 understood that the grasses are not to sustain the loss. A 

 liberal top-dressing of cake-fed manure must be applied after 

 the com is cut, to compensate the grass for what the corn has 

 absorbed. 



One point is of utmost consequence if corn is not to 

 injure the coming pasture, and this is the necessity of a very 

 light seeding of corn. A heavy crop is harmful in itself, and 

 involves further danger when it becomes laid. On the spots 

 where a heavy crop is lodged the grass will probably be 

 killed outright, and the slight additional gain derived from 

 a full seeding of corn will be more than counterbalanced by 

 losses in the grass plant, to say nothing of the labour of 

 patching it afterwards. 



The time for sowing grass seeds with spring corn will be 

 either immediately after the corn is got in, or when it is only 

 two or three inches high. It is well understood that the less 

 forward the cereal, the better the chance for the grass. 



On heavy, and especially on rich land, the choice of corn 

 is open. It may be either barley, oats, or wheat, and wheat is 

 always desirable for the grass. l For lighter soils barley or oats 

 are available, and oats are preferable to barley. 



Under certain conditions it answers well to cut the oats 

 green, and turn the crop into hay or silage. This method of 

 treating the herbage helps to keep down weeds quite as much 

 as when the oats are allowed to mature, and it takes far less 

 out of the land. 2 



1 I have been most successful from an April sowing on a thin plant of wheat, and 

 the late Mr. Clare Sewell Read said : ' I never find any difficulty in obtaining a plant 

 from seeds, even in May, when sown with wheat, for then the ground is firm and the 

 surface soil very fine. Often when the seeds fail in barley, the headlands round by 

 the gates have a good plant, because there is fine mould on the surface and a solid 

 bottom.' 



2 A well-known Scotch agriculturist states that he ' considers the best method 

 of sowing to be with about two bushels of oats, to be cut green before there is any 

 kernel. There is a large crop of useful fodder, the small seeds have beneficial protection 

 while they require it, annual weeds are lcept down, and the grasses get relief by the 



