1905.] Formation of Permanent Pastures. 399 



out a prescription of seeds. It is quite an easy thing, perhaps, 

 to decide what a pasture ought to be, but it is another matter to 

 form the pasture. I do not now refer to the skill shown in the 

 farming — the preparation of the land, sowing, manuring, and 

 grazing. All of these may profoundly modify the ultimate 

 result, but I assume for the present that the management is 

 what it should be, and I am writing only of the seeds-mixture. 

 So far as it is concerned, I am convinced that we shall have no 

 success if we content ourselves with planning pastures to scale. 



How, then, should we begin ? Although it is two centuries 

 since Worlidge gave us a prescription for a pasture " that will 

 last for ever," we have not yet learned the secret of how to 

 make one in the best and cheapest way. Many good pastures 

 have been laid down, and we have the prescriptions which were 

 used, but this does not help us much, for we are not in posses- 

 sion of complete records of the results. Our present knowledge 

 amounts to this. We know that if we use an abundance of 

 good seed of all the plants which are likely to suit the soil, and 

 if we manage the land well, we have a fair chance of producing 

 a satisfactory sole of grass, but this knowledge does not meet 

 the present needs of agriculture. It is his poorest land, and 

 usually it is land which is either very stiff or very light, or high 

 lying and exposed, that the farmer wishes to lay down to grass. 

 Neither he nor his landlord will spend much upon it ; foolishly, 

 of course, this land is laid down with a mixture of inferior 

 seeds, for this is what is usually meant by a " cheap mixture," 

 and the first step is taken in the making of what will be but an 

 addition to the wasted land of England. It is, perhaps, the 

 high cost of the reliable mixtures at present recommended for 

 permanent pastures, that more than anything else discourages 

 good grass farming. The farmer lays down land with a 

 mixture which is cheap, which his seedsman does not recom- 

 mend, and in which he himself has little confidence. Can we 

 expect him to do much for it ? Can we wonder if manure and 

 oil-cake seldom find their way into the field, or that the " new 

 grass" is left to take care of itself? But if the farmer had 

 confidence in his seeds-mixture, if he felt assured that it would 

 pay for good farming, he would not neglect it, and we might 

 with less regret see land transferred from the ploughman to the 

 shepherd. T. H. MlDDLETON. 



( To be co 11! intied.) 



