Report on Laying dmon Land to Permanent Pasture. 489 
of 352 acres of arable, and 48 acres of meadow and pasture land. From 1863 
to 1866 I converted 155 acres into permanent pasture or for a prolonged 
: period of artificial grass. In changing my system of management I was 
I influenced by the high price of stock and the increased cost of agricultural 
llabour. I had a summer fallow the preceding year, and sowed the seeds with 
an ordinary white-straw crop. Deep thorough draining, superintended by 
Mr. Bailey Denton in 1861-2, has not helped as I expected. I have generally 
sown in March or April. A mixture of rye-grass, trefoil, and sainfoin was the 
most successful, the sainfoin being sown separately. The grain crop with 
which the seeds were sown was allowed to ripen. 1 have occasionally top- 
1 dressed with guano before mowing, but have generally depastured with sheep. 
. I have not found this altered mode a success, and have converted nearly all 
into arable land again. I was enabled to keep more sheep and fewer cattle 
■ for a time. No aid was given me by my landlord in laying the land down to 
grass. Judging from the result of my experience, the best arable land will be 
• the best for grass ; but without tenant-right the tenant will be tempted to 
plough his grass land again towards the end of his lease. 
James Toungman. 
8. HoNiNGHAM Thorpe, Norwich. 
I hold this farm of 420 acres (of which 40 are pasture) from year to year, 
and there is no tenant-right in the district. The soil varies from a stiff clay 
loam to a light gravel. The rainfall of this parish is about 23 inches. The 
climate of Norfolk is so dry, and the soil generally so light, that it is not likely 
much arable land will be turned into permanent pasture, unless something 
dreadful happens to the price of barley ! I have no special rotation of cropping, 
but I take wheat and then barley after two years' seeds. I never keep common 
artificial grasses down more than two years ; but sainfoin from two to four 
years. I find that increased pasture enables me to keep more feeding-sheep, 
especially in summer, and a larger flock of breeding-ewes. I have not 
diminished my horses to any extent, as I have recently hired a small 
adjoining farm, which requires any horses that I have to spare. Neither 
' can I say that my labour is perceptibly diminished, for the men will not 
do the same amount of work as they did even a few years ago. When I 
'mean to keep down seeds for two years, I omit red clover and trefoil 
'from the mixture I use, and substitute cow-grass and white clover. By 
' keeping artificial grasses for more than one year, there is certainly a ten- 
'dency on light land to produce couch and other natural grasses. I 
keep my land clean by using the cultivator on the wheat-stubbles directly 
after harvest, and I continue to pull the root-weeds about until they are turned 
under an 8 or 9-inch furrow late in the autumn. By so doing I never have 
any cause to bum or remove any couch. In improving permanent pasture I 
find no dressing equal to a good coat of farmyard-manure, and I endeavour 
every alternate year to apply some manure or compost to it. I now grow my 
■ swedes and turnips entirely with artificial manure, and apply farmyard-manure 
[to my mangolds. As I grow fewer acres of roots than formerly, I try to grow 
' a greater weight per acre, and this I can best do by extending the cultivation 
of mangold wwtzel. I never mow any old pasture unless the seeds fail. 
Clare Sewell Bead. 
9. Barford, Warwick. 
I farm for the owner about 400 acres of land, for the most part of a deep 
marl soil, some small portion having a gravel subsoil. The rainfall is uncer- 
VOL. XI. — S. S. 2 K 
