494 On the Advantage of converting Cold Clay Arable Land 
being ill-adapted for tillage. Those fields, formerly for many 
years under tillage, but which were least desirable to till, have 
been one by one permanently seeded, usually with a corn crop ; 
and by repeated top-dressings and the liberal consumption upon 
them by cattle and sheep of purchased feeding-stuffs, they have 
been gradually improved and brought nearer the value of old 
turf. My proportion of arable-land is now less than one-sixth, and 
I do not propose to lay down any more of my present holding. 
I should, if my land were suitable, much prefer a larger pro- 
portion of arable for the growth of roots and straw in larger 
quantities as winter provision for stock, and my advocacy of 
seeding down land is not intended to apply to that which can 
be profitably farmed as arable. By liberal manuring I grow 
heavy crops of roots and straw upon the limited area of land I 
have in tillage, keeping all my land in crop, and only taking 
clover at long intervals. 
I will proceed to give the particulars of the last field perma- 
nently seeded in the spring of 1874. It is a steep hilly field 
of six acres, sloping to the north, with a strong marly soil, 
which had been ploughed for generations, and was in wheat 
in 1873. The stubble, which was clean, was ploughed in the 
autumn, and left untouched until the following May, the furrows 
being thoroughly pulverised by the winter's frost ; it was then 
scuffled and harrowed down level, and on the 8th of May the 
following mixture of clover and grass seeds was sown on the 
freshly stirred level surface with a barrow drill, and simply 
rolled in : — 
lbs. 
Meadow Foxtail 12 
Cocksfoot 18 
Hard Fescue 6 
Meadow Fescue 12 
Tall Fescue 6 
Italian Rye-grass 24 
Pacey's ]>erennial ditto 48 
Crested Dogstail 6 ' 
Poa nemoraiis 12 
Poa irivialis 9 
Timothy 9 
Trefoil 12 
Ribgrass 6 
Cow'^rass 18 
White Clover 18 
Alsike Clover 12 
228 
18 lbs. of rape were also sown. 
Although the weather was rather dry the seeds came up well. 
Two or three cwts. per acre of mineral superphosphate (2G per 
