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Report on Laying doion Land to Permanent Pasture. 4G3 
j or rim to seed. Newly-laid land should not be eaten very bare with sheep, 
lest they nip out the fine clovers, which, in a droughty season, may not come 
agaia. My experience is that much more stock can be kept during the first 
two years on ucwly-laid down land than subsequently ; it is then apt to fall 
oflf, and may not do well lor six or eight years, perhaps never. There is often 
a loss between the third and tenth years which few tenant-farmers can stand. 
I I have received no aid from my landlord, but whether actiug in that capacity, 
I' or as agent, 1 generally provide the seeds, if the land is in proper condition. 
I have also given manure for top-dressing, the third or fourth year, to the 
value of 20s. to 40s. per acre. I prefer sowing down good turnip-soil, because 
. it takes better and continues to improve, whereas clay-land generally goes 
I back after a few years. On the still arable portion of my farm I let the 
artificial grasses lie for two or three j^ears, or as long as they remain good ; 
this is the only way in which my rotation of cropping is altered, and I consider 
it the best form of arable farming. 
Intending to let seeds lie for three or more years, I should sow little or no 
red annual clover, but more alsike ; and if for sheep-pastures on light soil, 
more trefoil ; if for cattle, more cocksfoot. 
I have not found land become more foul through l3'ing longer in grass. I 
have lately taken up several fields, say 1\1 acres, which had laid from twelve 
to fifteen years, and 1 have not seen a barrowful of couch on the whole! If I 
had laud in such a state I should take two successive turnip-crops, or tiu-nips, 
barlej', then turnij)s again, taking care to eat all the turnips on, and there 
would not be a bit of couch upon the land afterwards. 
The best application for permanent grass is farmyard-manure, and, where 
needed, seeds sown and brushed in in the spring. I never saw any good from 
bones on the surface. Guano or nitrate tells at first, but does not last. Con- 
suming cake, &c., by sheep or cattle does good, but is uncertain and unequal, 
some parts being much improved, others in a less degree. . I mow about 30 
acres annually of old meadow. As to the benefit derived from enriching grass 
land I can give no statement in figures ; but when I see improved pastures 
keeping double the quantity of stock, and keeping it well, I conclude it pays. 
G. A. Geet. 
14. Cakham Hall, Coldstream. 
I have laid down three fields to permanent grass by the process known as 
"inoculation." The first contained 21 acres, and was put down in two 
portions, in successive years, about fifteen years ago ; the second, containing 
about 18 acres, five years ago ; the third in 1873, comprising some 6 or 7 
acres. All have succeeded very well, and are improving annually. Fifteen 
years before my adoption of this plan, I laid down the 21 acres with the 
best grass-seeds I could procure, along with a thin croiJ of wheat ; and for 
three or four years the pasture looked well, but subsequently it deteriorated 
year after year, uutil at length I got out of temper with it, tore up first one 
half and then the other, put them through a course of husbandry, and then 
sowed a thin crop of wheat and barley respectively. In April, or early in 
May, when the corn was a couple of inches above ground, I inoculated in the 
following manner : — I turned up the " sock " of a plough, and combed from 
an old pasture-field strips of turf 4 inches wide, leaving each time an interval 
of 4 inches, until I had got sufficient. I then carted the turves, so provided, 
to the land under experiment, where men with spades cut them across in 
lengths of 4 inches, making each piece of turf 4 inches sqiiare. A sufiicient 
number of women and children then filled their swills with them, and carried 
them off to the ends of the drills, and having dug out little holes with a short 
