62 



riety that had so long occupied it; all assimilated>to the con- 

 tiguous meadow, and were not to be distinguished from it. 



Are we then to give up the attempt to form such a sole 

 as we would prefer, or to improve a sole already esta- 

 blished ? or is it beyond our power to change the poor and 

 unkindly grasses with which spontaneous nature has 

 stocked it, for others more nutritive — now (thanks to Sir 

 Humphry Davy) that we know them ?— By no means. 

 But we must pursue diiferent measures from those my inge- 

 nious friends speculate upon. We must not attempt to 

 force Nature, and carry our point by violent alterations ; — 

 we must concihate her by kindness. We must improve the 

 soil which we wish to see clothed with a more kindly de- 

 scription of grasses ; and we must change it from a state 

 favourable to the production only of coarse, sour grasses, 

 and weeds, into one favourable to the production, and 

 encouraging to the growth of more kindly and more nu- 

 tritive grasses. 



It has been generally supposed, that spontaneous 

 Nature clothes our surface with the vegetables, and par- 

 ticularly with the grasses, best adapted to the soil in which 

 they are to grow. But an attentive observer will soon 

 discover, that this is not her usage ; on the contrary, that 

 she sows an indiscriminate mixture of grasses on all soils. 

 Of these, such as suit the soil they fall in, come forward in 

 health, while the grasses ill adapted to it fail off and 

 scarcely appear, yet generally preserve their existence. 



If these positions, the result of many years' dihgent ob- 

 servation, be well founded, it is upon the soil we should 

 operate to change its produce, without troubling ourselves 

 to change the grasses, over which we have no power. 



Let us take a cool and careful view of our extensive 

 pasture grounds, especially our mountain districts ; let us 

 try if we can find any very common description of soil^ 



