Report on Laying doion Land to Permanent Pasture. 465 
AVages having an upward tendency, and grazing being more to my taste 
than corn-growing, I have put down in pasture about 36 acres, taking care 
always to select the stilfer portions of the farm. My method of preparing the 
land was as follows : — Where requisite, I drained with pipe-tiles, 4 feet deep 
and 18 feet apart, being particulnr to convey the water into large stone 
troughs. I then applied a liberal dressing of lime, and ploughed it deeply 
in during autumn. In spring I gave another ploughing, as well as scarifying, 
harrowing, &c., until the land was thoroughlj^ cleaned, and then sowed turnips, 
which I dressed with farmyard-maniare and 10 cwts. per acre of j-inch bones. 
The roots, being a heavy crop, were partly drawn off ; the rest were consumed, 
where grown, by cake-eating sheep, and the barley or wheat, as the case might 
be, sown in March or April, according to weather. I used a mixture of per- 
manent seeds, supplied by Messrs. Carter, and, to insure equal distribution 
over the land, I sowed one-half in one direction and the remainder the reverse 
way. 
ily after-treatment of the young seeds has been generally this : I have in 
the first spring top-dressed with a mixture of dissolved bones and guano, and 
occasionally mown twice. In the second year I mowed once and then depas- 
tured with young cattle and sheep, having also one feed per day of linseed- 
cake and cotton-cake, in equal parts. In the third season I have altogether 
depastured, spreading turnips on the land or giving the sheep a run on an 
adjoining turnip-field, as soon as the crop was ready in autumn. 
My altered system of management saves me the cost of one man and one 
horse, while at the same time it has enabled me to increase my cattle by 15, 
and my flock of sheep by 36 head. 
With regard to the old grass land which I formd on entering the farm, I 
have had the whole of it drained with 2-inch pipes, 4 feet deep and 18 feet 
apart, emptying into mains of 4.i feet deep, and provided with 3, or, where 
the run was considerable, 4-inch tiles, the water being carefully collected in 
troughs for the use of the stock. I then covered the entire 55 acres with well- 
burut lime ; and in spring, when this was out of sight, I applied from 12 to 
15 cwts. per acre of l-inch bones, along with a dressing of Carter's renovating 
grass-mixture. In the autumn I put on purchased farmyard-dung, and the 
following season 1 was rewarded by a s])lendid crop of hay. Of these 55 acres 
I now mow one-fourth each year, the remaining three-fourths being depastured 
in the ordinary way ; and I prefer this to mowing the same plot year after 
year. What was when I entered into possession one continuous bed of whins, 
broom, wild roses, and heather, I have by the above treatment converted into 
beautiful green pasture ; and it need not, therefore, be wondered at that in ten 
ijears my head of stock has, as shown below, mightily increased : — 
Stock kept in 18G4. Stock kept in 1874. 
10 Sheep. 114 Sheep. 
3 Cows. 4 Cows. 
7 Young Cattle. 25 Young Cattle. 
4 Young Horses. 
And these figures, I would remark, are taken quite distinct from the stock 
maintained, as already described, upon luy recently-formed grass land. 
George Thompson Dickinson. 
16. Pkeston, Wellington, Shropshire. 
Besides 12 acres of my own land, I rent a farm of 87 acres, from year to 
year, with no tenant-right. The soil is sand, gravel, peat, and clay : the 
.rainfall does not average more than 25 inches. In 1854 I had 66 acres of 
