470 Report on Laying down Land fo Pennanent Pasture. 
of 3s. per week ; blacksmiths, 50 per cent. ; carpenters and other mechanics, 
25 per cent. Add to this larger local rates, re-vahiation, and advance of 
rent, amounting in some cases to from 10 to 16 per cent., and you may safely 
put down the tenant-farmer's cost of production as liaviug advanced 30 per 
cent, during the last three years ! 
With regard to the best method of improving old grass and meadow, "fod- 
<lering" stock upon them is a valuable agent; but I have found nothing equal 
to or last so well as good home-made manure from highly-fed stock, well 
rotted by constant saturation with tank-water. Where, however, this cannot 
be sjDared from the arable land, judiciously mixed top-dressings may be sub- 
stituted, and will be found to pay well for the outlay. My impression is that 
the grass land in this country does not receive near the attention true policy 
dictates. 
Touching the degree of dryness desirable for grazing purposes, all herbage 
is undoubtedly sweeter upon drained than upon undrained land ; but I have 
seen instances where both meadow and pasture have been over-drained. And 
it is yet an unsolved problem how it is that much of the land in Cheshire 
producing the very best quality of cheese is often in a very neglected state, 
growing little else but rushes and other coarse herbage. 
Henry Neild. 
22. Tatton Park, Knutsfoed, Cheshiee. 
We have, fi'om time to time, laid down a large breadth of land to permanent 
pasture on Lord Egerton's home-farm. 
The grass seeds, for economical reasons, are always sown with a grain-crop, 
which is allowed to ripen. The land intended to be laid down would, in the 
preceding year, have been under roots, which, owing to the soil and climate 
not being adapted to their being consumed on the land, would have been 
carted off. 
Sowing without a crop, and sowing with rape (2 lbs. per acre), have also 
been tried. My own opinion is that, provided the land be in good heart, clean 
condition, and a proper seed-bed has been secured — three essential conditions — 
it does not much matter which of the three methods be used. 
The seeding, whether with or without a cro}), should be done at the end of 
March or beginning of April, depending on the weather ; the surface must 
be fine and moderately dry, and the light and heavy seeds sown separately. 
It being above everything necessary that the land should be thoroughly clean, 
it is sometimes requisite to defer sowing the grass-seeds until too late for a 
grain-crop; in such case they may be sown alone, and may succeed very 
well, even when ]nit in as late as July or August ; but I prefer the earlier 
months mentioned above. 
Our mixture varies with the nature of the soil. The following has been 
lately used with much success : — 
Per acre. Per acre. 
J bush. Cocksfoot. ; 4 lbs. Smooth-stalked Meadow-grm 
I „ Foxtail. I 3 „ White Clover. 
\ „ Pacey's Perennial Eye-grass. 2 „ Trefoil, 
f „ Meadow Fescue. I 2 „ Timothy. 
2i lbs. Sweet Vernal. j „ Cowgrass. 
Some land grows cocksfoot so strong that it makes the herbage too coarec, 
and it is consequently omitted. In some cases 2 lbs. of rib-grass may be 
advantageously added to the above. 
The young seeds should be mown the first year, the next year depastured 
with young cattle, not sheep. Top-dress in the second year with, say, 2 cwt. 
