Report on Laying doion Land to Permanent Pasture. 473 
•way as is the case in some localities) : but the great scarcity of the men and 
women servants whom we hire by the year to live in the farm-houses, and 
whose services, where the dairy-farming is extensively practised, cannot be 
done without. I have been enabled, by my altered system of management, to 
dispense with six of those (three men and three women), and also with three 
ordinary labourers. The wages of the hired (young) men have lately advanced 
fully one-third, while labourers get 3s. to 4s. a week more ; and therefore I 
effect a considerable saving in this way. I also keep three farm-horses fewer 
than formerly. 
In preparing the land for seeding-down, my plan has been first to clean it 
thoroughly with a well-manured green crop. 1 have occasionally tried beans, 
but I prefer roots, as being more easily cleaned. In this neighbourhood, where 
early potatoes are much cultivated, I have seen land sown down at the end of 
June or beginning of July, after these have been removed, and with good 
results. This I believe to be the best plan of securing a good thick root of 
permanent grasses and clovers, and I would add a sprinkling of rye, or rape, 
or vetches, to be eaten green by sheep. A corn-croiD, where land is in heart, is 
almost certain to become lodged, and invariably smothers the young plants. 
Messrs. Sutton and Sons, of Beading, have, at a cost of about 20s. per acre, 
supplied me with a permanent mixture suited to the kind of soil under treat- 
ment, and I have always found it best to sow the light seeds separate from the 
heavier ones. 
During the first autumn, or if sown along with a grain-crop, as soon as the 
latter is harvested, the newly made pasture should receive a dressing of about 
7 cwt. fine bones and 3 cwt. superphosphate per acre, and be then for two 
years depastured as much as possible with cattle. Sheep, by biting too closely, 
are liable to destroy the tender pilants, and, if allowed on at all, should not be 
permitted to remain too long. If carefully treated and occasionally top-dressed, 
I certainly maintain that grass recently laid down will increase rather than 
diminish in productiveness as the turf acquires maturity. 
My old grass and meadow land I have also improved, first by draining, 
where necessary, and then by laying on bones and farmyard-dung. I always 
endeavour, by consuming the whole of my hay and straw on the premises, to 
swell the manure-heap as much as possible ; and as, besides using most part of 
my own oats, I purchase considerable quantities of cotton-cake, Indian corn, 
and bran, what I j^roduce is of a very superior quality. Having but a small 
proportion of tillage-land, and yet making a deal of manure (for I keep also a 
large number of pigs), I generally manage to apply dung not only to the whole 
of the root-crop, but also to the clover-root, as well as a portion of the grass 
land or meadow ; and where I cannot do this, I have recourse to the best 
artificial compounds. I usually mow about 30 acres of meadow grass annually, 
taking care that the land does not go longer than two years without a dressing 
of well-made dung, a fertilizer on which I place great reliance. 
Chakles Willis. 
26. TOULGEEANE, BaKEWELL, DeEBTSHIEE. 
My farm of 677 acres I rent from year to year, with a " tenant-right." It 
is chiefly a brown soil, with limestone cropping up to the surface in a few 
places. I have long made a practice of laying portions of land down to grass. 
About half my farm is arable, but I am convinced that it would pay better if 
the whole were pasture, except a few acres kept to grow corn and roots. After 
ploughing out any grass land, my plan has been to grow two crops of oats, and 
then a crop of turnips, manuring with 4 quarters of bones and 5 cwt, of salt 
per acre ; the year following I lay it down with rape and seeds, and, if good, 
VOL. XI. — S. S. 2 I 
