GRASS. 



169 



grass in boxes rather than in the field, I have not been able to 

 arrive at such accurate conclusions ; nor would the limits of a 

 letter permit me minutely to point them out. Let it suffice, 

 that where grass can be produced sufficiently long for mowing 

 [and I should be glad to learn on what farm it cannot], double 

 the quantity of cattle may easily be fed from the same breadth 

 of land. 



Indeed it would be difficult to offer an opinion as to the 

 quantity of grass that land in general might be made to pro- 

 duce, or the number of cattle kept ; for, by the application of 

 manure, clover will yield three successive crops in one season. 

 I have no doubt but that this description of grass on the best 

 lands in Norfolk often produces 12 or 16 tons per acre; nearly 

 the whole of which is made into hay for winter store — the fat- 

 tening qualities destroyed — and the opportunity of grazing a 

 quantity of cattle, and obtaining a supply of superior manure, 

 thrown away. I repeat, fattening qualities thrown away^ be- 

 cause whoever saw a bullock fattened exclusively upon hay, 

 or a horse that could perform his ordinary work through the 

 winter with hay alone ? 



From an experiment that I made last year, it appears that 

 the weight of grass, when made into hay, is reduced about six 

 and a half to one ; that is to say, eight stone of grass will make 

 only one stone and a half of hay. 



I had grass weighed to six horses three weeks since ; when 

 they consumed at the rate of forty -four stone per day. Now 

 had these six horses been fed exclusively upon hay, I calculate 

 they would have eaten eighteen stone per day. To obtain 

 eighteen stone of hay, according to the above experiment, 96 

 stone of grass would be required. But the horses ate only 44 

 stone^ which is 52 stone less. Therefore we may fairly assume 

 that, if every eighteen stone of hay had been given to cattle in 

 the form of grass, it would have gone as far again. But ob- 

 serve, this merely applies to the first mowing. 



Boxes are, I am happy to say, being erected by many agri- 

 culturists in my own neighbourhood, and in other parts of the 

 kingdom. And ere long, I expect that a farmer will as soon 

 think of turning twenty bullocks into twenty acres of turnips 

 as into twenty acres of grass. 



