474 Report on Laying down Land to Permanent Pasture. 
let it lie for eight or ten years. The great thing in laying land down is t( 
have it clean and solid, with a iine tilth, otherwise the seeds cannot grow. ; 
always mix my own seeds as follows : — li lbs. of small seeds, and 1 quarter o 
home-grown hay-seeds, and sow with I5 lb. of rape, and pasture the youn; 
seeds with sheep, of which I am j'ear by year rearing a larger number. Ii 
the second year my seeds are generally very early, and are valuable for th( 
milking cows. 
I consider that, where requisite, all land should be well drained. I hav( 
not received any assistance from my landlord in laying down grass. 
I have not altered my system of farming with regard to the arable land, no 
my mixture of artificial grass-seeds. As to land becoming foul under grass, '. 
maintain that that can be avoided, provided it is once well cleaned, hy beinj 
particular in the selection of good clean seed. 
I CDdeavour to keep my grass land in heart by consuming upon it " chop,' 
roots, and artificial food. The harder land is stocked, provided the stock an 
well supplied witli feeding-stuff, the more it will carry. I use the farmyard- 
manure for growing two or three acres of cabbages, and a few potatoes, whili 
the rest is put on the meadows. All my turnips I grow with bones and salt 
but if, in spite of the artificials consumed by stock on a pasture, I find it i; 
not grazing well, I apply a little salt, manure it, and mow for a year or two 
which quite changes the herbage, and improves the field immensely. 0 
course while doing this I have to pasture some of the meadow land. I cat 
now keep far more stock than when I entered the farm nine years since. 
John Akcher. 
27. Hargate Hall, Buxton, Derbyshire. 
I farm 360 acres of my own property. The soil varies from a good ricl 
loam to a poor thin red, or, as we call it, " fox-soil," on limestone-rock ; auc 
in parts we have " Dun-stone " and clay. Our average rainfall is 51 inches, 
I commenced laying land do\vn on my present farm in 1860. At that tim( 
my holding consisted of 
80 acres arable. I IGO acres permanent pasture. ' 
70 „ meadow. | 50 „ sheep walk. 
In 1874— 
25 acres arable. I 225 acres permanent pasture. 
60 „ meadow. | 50 „ sheep walk. 
It will therefore be seen that I have laid to permanent pasture G5 acres ; anc 
I have done this because I consider that in this district it pays better to groi^ 
cattle than corn, the climate heing too cold and wet for the latter. On lanti 
which I intended laying down I have sometimes taken two, or even three 
crops of oats, well manured with guano and artificials. This Jias had a good 
effect in well breaking up the land, and making the process of fallowing easy 
but it does not answer well, even with a liberal supply of bones, as the land 
goes so sad after two or three years, and the herbage becomes poor and thin 
The best plan is to take one crop of oats, then fallow and sow down, and laj 
on bones. 
I prefer sowing in April, light and heavy seeds together, using my own ok 
meadow grass-seeds, and a mixture of clovers, rib-grass, trefoil, and rape. It i- 
better to sow with rape tlian corn, as the liberal sujjply of bones and othe: 
manure requisite to put the land in heart for the young grass, often "lays' 
the corn, which then rots and spoils the seeds. Before laying down to gras; 
land should be thoroughly drained : this I consider as necessary for pasture a 
