496 On converting Cold Clay Arahle Land, ^-c. 
young seeds sown in the spring may, without injury, be topped 
with the scythe to prevent all annual weeds from seeding, and 
any blank places may be resown. Where the land is foul, by 
seeding without a corn crop, more time is afforded to clean it, 
as the seeds may succeed well sown in the summer or early 
autumn. Sowing in very hot droughty weather is, however, better 
avoided. Snails are often very destructive to the young seeds 
whilst small ; a dusting with quicklime, sown in the earlj- 
morning or evening when these pests are out, is the most 
effectual remedy. Seeds often take well with a corn crop on land 
of good quality and condition, and the value of the corn crop 
may be well worth securing. If the seeds be not sown directly 
after the spring corn has been harrowed in, the level surface 
should be again lightly harrowed previous to sowing and the 
roll only follow the sowing of the small seeds. 
The climate and soil of some parts of England are specially 
favourable to the growth of artificial grasses and clovers in 
alternate husbandry. Notably is this the case in Cheshire and 
Lancashire. In these counties, too, bones have a specially favour- 
able effect upon the young seeds, and are commonly applied in 
autumn after the corn is cut in dressings of from 5 to 8 cwts. 
of bone-dust per acre. The effect of bones upon seeds in many 
other parts of England is by no means so marked, and I hesitate 
to recommend any large outlay upon them until their suitability 
to the soil of the district has been tested by experiment. 
The question of the necessity of draining cold clay land 
before permanently seeding it, requires some notice. I have 
drained a considerable acreage of my own occupation 4 feet 
deep, some of it with very marked benefit, and I fully agre^ with 
the commonly received opinion that where land is thoroughly 
wet efficient drainage ought to be the first improvement, without 
which any other outlay will be partially wasted. 
There is, however, much clay land which does not answer for 
draining as well as land with an open subsoil. It is wet more 
on account of its own want of porosity than from any quantity 
of water in the subsoil, and although thorough drainage is bene- 
ficial, it does not always repay the heavy outlay required. 
When land is in regular tillage, with an annual heavy outlay 
in cultivation, it is important that no remediable cause should be 
allowed to injure the crops. When land is laid down to grass, 
the necessity for drainage is not quite so great. Instances arc not 
wanting in which the owner of poor clay young turf, acting on 
the assumption that draining and bones are all that is needed, to 
make good pasture, has spent more than lOZ. per acre on these 
two items, and with very indifferent results, certainly not adequate 
