466 JReport on Laying down Land to Permanent Pasture. 
arable land, and 33 of pasture: since ttat time I have laid the whole of the- 
farm down in grass, having been induced to do so on account of the increased 
cost and difficulty of obtaining labour on a small farm. As regards draining of 
grass land, I do not consider it need be carried out to the same extent as for 
land under the plough. 
I have always prepared the land by growing a crop of turnips, and then 
sowing the grass-seeds, light and heavy together, in Ajiril, with a crop of 
barley or oats, sown thin, and allowed to ripen. The mixture of grass-seeds I 
have not found of so much importance as a high condition of land. I always- 
endeavour to get the land into good heart before laying it down, and then I 
find it profitable to dose it well annually for the first four or five years ; which 
treatment compels nature, as it were, to produce grasses which are indigenous 
to the soil. In this, I consider, consists the secret of the whole business. I 
should prefer depasturing the young seeds with cattle, but should be guided, 
in a great measure, by seasons. In a moist season I should prefer to depasture 
with sheeji, or even to mow : but, if mowoi, a very liberal dressing of manure 
will be required. I deem it of the utmost importance to avoid, as much as 
possible, treading and poaching the seeds for the first two or three years. Since 
I have laid my land all down to grass I have been able to keep two-thirds 
more cattle, chiefly for fattening. This year I have 80 beasts growing into 
heavy weights, and that with a light rainfall the first six months of 1875. I 
consider that clay-soils are best farmed as grass, while the light, friable land is 
more suitable for ploughing. As to the improvement of permanent pasture, 
I have found that best effected by heavy dressings of prepared bones and 
farmyard-manure; also 'hy a liberal consumption upon it of linseed-cake, com, 
and decorticated cotton-cake ; and I may state that the land so treated has 
rendered a good return for the outlay. 
H. Browx. 
17. Skimblecoxt, Much Wenlock, Shbopshike. 
1 am engaged, along with my father, in managing a stiff, wet, clay farm, of 
367 acres, of which 200 acres are under the j^lough. My remarks, however, 
will apply to a large part of South Shropshire, on the western side of the river 
Severn, equally with our own immediate tenancy. Receiving, as we do, a 
large amount of moisture, which sweeps in a south-westerly direction from the 
Bristol Channel, our climate may be reckoned a damp one, and tlierefore more 
adapted for grass and green crops than for grain. The cold clays imder culti- 
vation in this and similar situations are sadly out of place, and have long 
ceased to be other than a source of annoyance and loss of time and capital to 
the occupier, especially with the present increased price of manual and horse- 
labour. Depend upon it, a stiff clay fallow, alike drained as undraincd, is a 
subject requiring long credit, and, even with the utmost indulgence, seldom 
meeting full payments. The horses required to cultivate land of this descrip- 
tion eat nearly everything it produces, except the wheat-crop ; and this last 
will not yield more on an average of seven years than 18 imperial bushels 
per acre of saleable grain. These, and numerous other facts 1 could deduce, 
sufficiently explain the necessity of jaitting down to grass a large portion 
of the heaviest land in the Western and Midland Counties. But 1 would 
at the same time utter a note of warning against haste and precipitation 
in so doing ; for nothing can justify the laying downi land in an unpre- 
pared, rough-and-tumble state. We know that the great secret in forming 
good pasture consists in the being able to preserve the finer grasses and clovers, 
which almost invariably die out after the first three years. Freshly put-down 
