into Permanent Pasture, and the lest Method of doing it. 489 
of arable land each year. Judiciously carried out, especially 
upon poor heavy land expensive to till, the value of the estate 
would be enhanced, and the position of the tenant improved." 
Some political economists who are quite ignorant of practical 
nirriculture, although they think themselves fully qualified to 
ach the farmers their business, and some intelligent and 
iccessful farmers, like !Mr. Alechi, whose experience has been 
a a climate suited to the growth of corn, and with land which, 
il clay, is fairly level, free from timber, and capable of steam 
tillage, have deplored, in the public interest, the increase of 
permanent pasture which our agricultural returns show to be 
,-iowing in England. 
Farmers, however, are not bound to keep their land in tillage 
or conduct their business at a loss any more than any other 
trading class. I am no advocate for the conversion into pasture 
iif arable land which is readily capable of profitable cultiva- 
tion. Where, however, the conditions are mostly adverse 
to tillage, where the climate is cold and damp, the soil stiff 
and unworkable, the position hilly, the inclosures small and 
irregular, hedgerow timber or ground-game abundant ; in those 
cases where some if not all of these conditions apply, no reduc- 
tion of rent will wholly meet the difficulty. The land being 
unprofitable to plough should be laid down to grass, when, if 
the produce be but small, the cost of labour may be reduced to 
a minimum, and actual loss thus be avoided. In order better 
to illustrate my point, I will quote the actual facts with regard 
to a farm where the conversion of poor unprofitable arable 
land into very useful pasture has been carried out under my 
own observation. 
Twenty-three years ago a friend of mine entered upon a farm 
of 240 acres, on a large estate. One-half of it was then in turf 
of fair quality, but in rather poor condition ; the remainder was 
arable, 80 acres on one side of the farm being poor strong marl, 
the fields hilly, with a northern aspect, the remaining 40 acres 
being more workable, and sloping to the south, though with 
rather a shallow soil. 
The previous tenant of the farm had been losing money, and 
the offgoing crop of wheat was, I believe, about 2 qrs. per acre. 
The new tenant, convinced after the first year's experience 
of the unprofitable nature of much of the arable land, com- 
menced the process of permanently seeding the stifFest and most 
hilly fields. The clover and grass seeds were generally sown 
with a corn crop, but twenty acres were sown without corn, and 
with rape, eaten on the land when grown up, with sheep and 
young cattle. Each year one or more fields were permanently 
seeded, the young seeds being top-dressed periodically, some- 
