78 



were also in the greatest abundance, to scatter as many of 

 them over the surface as he could afford, and then to 

 throw some shovelfulls of sand over them ; hoping that 

 until they exerted their vegetative powers, and actually 

 rooted in the sand, they would act mecJianicalli/, and by 

 their long strings entangle the sand, and increase the diffi- 

 culty of disturbing it. 



I advised also, in his Islands, to gather such sea-wrack 

 as would not make krlp, and, having previously suffered it 

 to ferment a little in heaps, to make it dissolve more readily, 

 to scatter it over the surface, both with a view to enrich it, 

 and also as in the former case to entangle the sand. 



Although I had on all other occasions decidedly forbid 

 the propagation of this agrostis by seed, on account of its 

 slowness of growth, and the certainty of its being choked 

 up by intruding rivals ; yet I advised Mr. Brown to try 

 seed, of which this grass is very productive, secure that, at 

 least in this field, we should not be disturbed by rivals ; nor 

 was I so anxious about the species of grasses that should 

 grow on this untried soil, as to get any thing to vegetate, 

 and aid by its roots to fix the loose sand. 



I have, in this and the preceding chapters, laid open fields 

 of immeasurable extent to the ingenuity and industry of 

 man ; the magnitude of the areas should not discourage us, 

 for it is not to their magnitude our eff'orts are to be pro- 

 portioned. Let us endeavour to advance a little upon 

 their peripheries, and thus : 



" Oi-as magni evolvere belli/' 



I must repeat, that where pasture is our object, as in 

 this and the two preceding chapters, we have great encou- 

 ragement. We are relieved from many previous operations ; 

 no inclosure nor even weeding necessary ; we press di- 

 rectly to our point, and operate immediately. 



