65 



that whatever may be the varieties that now come forward, 

 they will be kindly and grateful. 



I have in the two preceding chapters detailed the mea- 

 sures for discharging- the waters and enriching the surface : 

 they are precisely similar to those that will be required for 

 mountain pastures ; but with this important difference, 

 that in the latter we are relieved from the expense of 

 weeding and inclosing. 



Whether after so very considerable an abatement of 

 expense, we can look forward with prudence to the en- 

 counter of these boundless tracts, is a question that de- 

 serves the most serious discussion ; — but what occasion 

 have we to look to the magnitude of the whole, when 

 the improvement of one or of a few acres brings with it a 

 certain value by itself, w ithout inducing any necessity of 

 advancing one step farther ? Letus recollect, that whatever 

 improvement we make in this >vay is permanent ; our pas- 

 ture ground, so far as our exertions reach, amended for 

 ever ; and the proofs of our success or failure unequivocal : 

 for if we change the nature of our soil, we change the 

 colour of the sole ; and the contrast between the original 

 surface and that operated on as I have directed, will in 

 a very few weeks be most striking. 



We shall soon have other unsuspected testimony : shall 

 we, as I promise, change the sour unkindly grasses, 

 now occupying the surface, "into others more grateful to 

 the" cattle grazing upon it ; they themselves will instantly 

 discover the more desirable food, select and dwell upon 

 the spots. Shall even their actual preference escape our 

 view, in the short visits we may make to our mountain pas-^ 

 tures, we shall find they have left unequivocal proofs behind 

 them, distinguishing and pointing out the favourite spots 

 they had preferred, and dwelled longest upon. 



It would be very desirable to ascertain vfhat it would 

 F 



