136 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



The old Welsh system of ' fogging,' or allowing the hay 

 crop to cure itself, uncut, in the open fields, demands but briet 

 notice here. The fields are fed off by winter stock early in the 

 spring up to the end of April ; then the grass is laid in as if 

 for hay, but is left uncut all the summer, and stock are not 

 permitted to graze until December. Welsh farmers state that 

 cows feeding on the dry grass give as good butter as in the 

 spring of the year ; that the frost makes the grass sweet ; and 

 that the herbage shoots very much earlier in the following 

 spring, because it is protected by the brown growth of the 

 previous year ; also that when mixed with the old grass it is 

 much more wholesome and sustaining food. The inducement 

 to adopt this system is that all expense and anxiety of hay- 

 making are avoided. Some farmers actually let their grass 

 fields stand untouched from May until February or March of 

 the following year, when the stock are turned out of doors. 

 No doubt the practice supplies a great deal of food at a time 

 of scarcity, and this food is specially prized for the early- 

 calving cows. The whole system is, of course, contrary to all 

 the recognised canons by which grass land is managed in 

 England. 



The quantity of hay annually produced in Great Britain 

 differs widely from year to year, and this variation is mainly 

 attributable to the character of the season. On the following 

 page the Returns of the Board of Agriculture are quoted 

 for ten years, from 1897 to 1906 inclusive. From these 

 figures it will be observed that although the acreage does 

 not greatly vary during the decade, there is an enormous 

 divergence in the crop realised in different years. The largest 

 yield was 212,760,858 cwt. in 1898, and the smallest weight 

 132,365,975 cwt. in 1901. 



The estimated average production per acre of rotation 

 hay in the former year is 33-65 cwt., and in the latter year 

 25-48 cwt., while from permanent grass the return is 29-2-1 cwt. 

 in 1898 and 16-63 cwt. in 1901. Roughly speaking, it may 



