.372 



The Improvement of Grass Land. [july. 



of course, imply a whole sequence of high-grade leys, some 

 designed more particularly for hay and others more for pasture. 

 This would mean more ploughing out of sward than in the 

 ''water-tight compartment" method; but in wet climates 

 it should be a decided gain, for frequently days too bad to 

 plough arable are suitable for breaking sward. 



Breaking is, of course, the last resort on the heavy, unworkable 

 clays, and if such fields are broken there would be much to be 

 said for the double summer fallow. If inaccessible fields, 

 or steep, hilly, or badly-shaped fields are best broken, it would 

 be a distinct advantage to get them down to grass again 

 without a second ploughing. On friable soils in w^et districts 

 this can be done with every promise of success by the method 

 of rape pasturing advocated some years ago by Mr. Wibberley.* 



Proper Crazingr,— No matter what method of grass-land 

 improvement is adopted, the maximum benefits can never 

 be obtained unless grazing is properly regulated, and unless 

 also the grazing is heavy in proportion to the amount of 

 k%ep, that is to say, in proportion to the success of improve- 

 ments. Speaking very generally, there is far more harm done 

 iby under stocking than by over stocking. What is wanted 

 is a sort of rotation system of stocking, store cattle following 

 iatting animals, sheep following stores, rather than com- 

 'petitive mixed grazing. Intensive grass-land management 

 is not compatible with large enclosures ; the enclosures need 

 to be varied in size according to the time of the year, the weather 

 .conditions and the type of animals grazed. 



In conclusion. Professor Stapledon remarked that the 

 temporary high- class ley taken over a farm leaves its legacy 

 in fertility, makes rotations elastic, and surmounts to some 

 extent the difficulties connected with the present shortage 

 of fertilisers. In the present uncertain state of the world's 

 food supplies the nation which can devise a system of agriculture 

 that can be rapidly made subservient to any sudden and 

 unforseen need, without at the same time disorganising the 

 industry, will have achieved security against shortage. The 

 pivotal crop in a general emergency rotation (and who can say 

 what it will pay the farmer best to grow two or three years 

 hence, or what the nation will most need) is not wheat, nor 

 -oats, nor roots, but is the high grade temporary ley. 



* See this Journal, November, 1914, p. 701. 



