Improvements required in Arable Land. 319 
dose of 2 or 3 cvvt. of guano per acre, in the early sprinjj^, is the 
best artificial dressing for poor grass-lands ; if deficient in phos- 
phates, bones would clo good. Most probably the pastures would 
be covered with hassock-grass and ant-hills. Some farmers cut 
these banks open, tlu'ow the soil and ants aliout, and replace the 
turf. It is a better way to mat up tlie hassocks and ant-hills, and 
cart the tufts away to a heap, and there pack them over with 
hot lime. When well rotted, this should be applied to the land, 
and some grass-seeds and Dutch clover sown, and the ground well 
harrowed and brushed. It is essential to try and improve the 
herbage by sowing a mixture of good seeds, as the sub-aquatic 
grasses are sure to die out wlien land has been properly drained. 
From this and similar treatment the poor pastures of the county 
could not fail to derive great benefit. 
The improvement of arable clay-land is more expensive, but 
also more satisfactory, and gives a quicker return. Tlie surface 
and stagnant water must first be removed by draining, before the 
land can be effectually cleaned or the manure do much good. 
This stagnant water not only makes the soil close and compact, 
and keeps out the air and heat which produce fermentation, but 
it even impregnates the subsoil with pernicious qualities which 
can only be removed by draining and deep-ploughing. Such 
arable land should be drained up every furrow, at a deptli not 
less than 3 feet, and the ridges may be gradually reduced from 
their present enormous height. This must be done only by der/rees, 
and the crown of the ridge enriched by constant dressings of 
manure. When this levelling is accomplished the drains will be 
at least 4 feet from the surface, but the land is not like turnip 
and barley soils, and ridges and furrows cannot be dispensed 
with, or the land ploughed, trodden on, or carted on in the wet. 
Some successful instances are seen in the county where these 
large round lands have been levelled and entirely altered into 3 
or 4 yard ridges. Draining is best performed in the autumn or 
winter ; and in the following summer, when the soil is well dried, 
the land should be subsoiled across the drains. This should 
be repeated the next time the land is in fallow, and once every 
eight years after that. It is the want of this deep cultivation 
which renders underdraining so incomplete. Long unfermcnted 
manure is best for clay soils : it assists in keeping the land loose 
and porous. There need be no apprehension on such drained 
soils lest the best of the manure should be washed away, for all 
clays have a strong affinity for, and the power of retaining, the 
effluvia arising from fermentation. It is by the access of water 
and air that manure is made fluid and aeriform, in which state 
alone it can benefit plants : but in stagnant water manure will 
become antiseptic and preserved from putrefying. On non-cal- 
Y 2 
