482 Report on Laying doicn Land to Permanent Pasture. 
34. Llannekch, St. Asaph, Nobth Wales. 
I have for over 20 years had in hand two of my own farms : one in Colwyn 
Bay, chiefly arable, containing 400 acres, including 80 of sheep-walk; the 
other in the Vale of Clwyd, varying from 400 to 600 acres, as it comprises land 
which I take froQi time to time from my tenants, put in order, lay down, and 
let off again. The soil is chiefly clay, to anj'' depth ; but some good meadows 
by the river Chvyd have a deposit of about 4 feet of alluvial soil, resting on 
gravel and clay beds. The elevation is from 50 to 200 feet, and our average 
rainfall for the last 7 j^ears was 32 inches. During the past twenty years I have 
put down to grass about 200 acres. I endeavour to clean the land for seeds 
by taking at least one green crop, generally turnips. A bare fallow, followed 
by green crops, is the most effective, but is a method few yearly tenants can 
afford to practise. I have always seeded down with a thinly sown grain-crop, 
allowed to ripen — sometimes on an autumn-sown wheat-crop, which I pre- 
fer if the season suits, where the winter frosts have thoroughly pulverised the 
soil, sowing the seeds at the end of April or beginning of May. For the last 
few years I have used seeds obtained from the Agricultural and Horticultural 
Co-operative Society, 47, Milbank-street, and have found them excellent, and 
equal, if not superior, to any I have tried. I have laid down 80 acres in per- 
manent pasture with them in the last four years. I prefer to mow early the 
first year, tlien pasture with young cattle, and not mow again. The yoimg 
grass ought to be liberally treated the second and third j'ears, and well top- 
dressed, otherwise the seed and labour will be thrown away. If the land is 
generously dealt with, natural grasses soon come up. Dissolved or ground 
tones answer well, especially on stiff land. I have not tried " inoculation." My 
experience is that the heavier lands answer best in pasture. I do not consider 
that any of my land in the Vale of Clwyd is profitable under the plough, although 
it will grow good wheat and beans. As to the requisite amount of dryness, I 
do not believe clay-land can be overdrained. I have drained a considerable 
breadth of old grass land, 4 feet deep and 30 feet apart ; but that has in some 
cases proved too wide, causing me to put in intermediate drains at a depth of 
3 feet. Alike for pasture as for arable purposes I would advise the draining of 
stiff clays 24 feet apart. The best means of improving grass of long standing 
I find to be draining, boning, and the consuming of roots and cake upon it. 
Through this means my deer-park of 170 acres now grazes about double the 
stock it did thirty years ago, and several of my fields are equally improved. 
Whitehall Dod. 
35. Nanttweach, Llanewst, Noeth Wales. 
I hold my farm of 470 acres on a nineteen years' lease. The soil is chiefly 
heavy loam; some part of it peat, on a clay subsoil. The average rainfall is 
50 inches, and the situation over 800 feet above the sea-level. In'*18GG I had 
260 acres of sheep-walk, and the rest of the farm was arable land, growing oats 
year after year, with only a few acres of turnips. Finding that the land was 
very dirty and impoverished by continual cropping, and of a grassy nature, I 
began to lay it down, thinking I could enrich it best and at the least outlay 
by so doing. I prepare the land for seeding by taking two successive turnip- 
crops, and eating them on the field by sheep, which get also corn and cake. I 
then sow the grass-seeds about the end of March, together with a thin corn- 
crop, which, when ripe, is cut as high as possible. I always mix light and 
hcav}' seeds together, and sow 2 bushels of Pacey's perennial rye-grass, 11 lbs. 
of white clover, and 5 lbs. of alsike, per acre. Prior to laying down I h?id the 
land thoroughly drained, which mode of treatment I consider as necessary for 
grass as for arable land. 
