Notes on Inoculation of Grass Land at Kimbolton. 
233 
the field, and within a ring fence the effect of the different 
methods adopted may easily be studied. I have little to add in 
reference to the general appearance of the sward that is not 
recorded in the foregoing statements of the Duke of Manchester 
and his bailiff, Mr. VVallis. 1 may say, however, that I was 
much surprised at the rapid development of pasture induced 
by inoculation. The plot laid down in the autumn of 1873, 
with the smaller pieces of turf, had a remarkably fresh and 
healthy appearance. Of the plots that had only passed through 
■one summer, that which was planted in the spring of last year 
was somewhat patchy, but, on the whole, did not present a 
"worse appearance than fresh seeds on many well-treated soils at the 
same period of the year, and which afterwards turn out well. But 
the plot inoculated the previous autumn had a good even sward ; 
the land was completely covered with well-planted, thickly 
growing grasses, and had a much more substantial character than 
ordinary seeds only one year old. 
Inoculation was first introduced in the early part of the pre- 
sent century, " invented," as it is termed, by Mr. Whitworth, of 
Acre House, Lincolnshire. It was thought for some time to be 
a great discovery, and many persons were greatly in its favour, 
if not, indeed, enthusiastic in advocating its adoption. T. W. 
Coke, Esq., offered a prize for the encouragement of this " new 
•description of husbandry." The first person who practised the 
new system to any extent was one of Mr. Coke's tenants, John 
Blomfield, of VVarham, Norfolk. Almost all the original litera- 
ture on the subject is confined to a work written in 1817 by 
Mr. Coke's steward, Francis Blaikie, 'On the Conversion of 
Arable Land into Pasture ;' and to a few pages in the late 
Mr. George Sinclair's ' Hortum Gramineus Woburniensis.' 
The " new description of husbandry," however, has made but 
little progress; and so little of a practical nature is generally 
Jcnown of it, that even very modern works on agriculture actually 
give the labour-expense of the operation as 2/. 10s. per acre, 
■evidently relying on the authority of Mr. Blyth, of Burnham, 
Norfolk, who made his calculations so far back as 1816 ! To 
strictly follow the old system of inoculation would at the 
present time cost at least twice, if not thrice the amount thus 
given. 
The Duke of Manchester does not, of course, claim to be the 
original inventor of inoculation as a means of laying down land 
to permanent pasture. He may, however, I think, hereafter 
justly lay claim to having introduced an improved method of 
practising it, if not to its revival in the present day. According 
to the invariable instructions under the old system, the turf was 
pared in breadths of from 6 to 9 inches. To make these parings 
