Report on Laying down Land to Pa'manent Pasture. 493 
have found nothing so beneficial as manure fresh from the stables spread on 
the laud, and, after it has been well washed with rain, I rake up the long straw 
iwhich remains. I have brol\en up poor pasture with advantage — land which, 
;\vhen I did mow it (whicli was seldom) never produced more than 15 cwt. of 
;hay to the acre in July. This land now jiroduces every fourth year from 
[30 cwt. to 2 tons per acre of seed-hay, and every fourth year from 16 to 
[20 tons of roots per acre ; so that I consider the supply of cattle-food is 
[doubled, and I, of course, get a corn- crop every other year— i to 5 quarters of 
wheat, and 5 to 6 quarters of barley per acre. The crops of everything are 
quite as good as when first broken up twenty years ago. 
E. BOWLY. 
13. Chadbuky, neab Evesham. 
. I can only say in reply to the questions you have sent me as to the effect of 
jthe high price of live-stock and the increased cost of labour, that they have 
had none whatever in inducing the occupiers of farms, within my knowledge, 
to lay down their arable land, nor to alter, in any material degree, the 
management of their farms. Taking, for instance, a radius of 20 miles round 
Evesham the farms are mainly arable, and the first object is the production 
^f wheat, for whicli both soil and climate are adapted. To this end as many 
isheep are kept as is practicable, with the twofold object of making mutton 
while preparing the land for wheat. Oil-cake and corn are given with the 
;reen crops, both in winter and summer, bare fallows being now unknown. 
The straw is made into manure by cattle also taking oil-cake or corn, and this 
^oes to grow root-crops, aided by artificial manure. This has been the prac- 
.;ice here for many years ; and if the high price of meat has made any change, 
t is that rather more oil-cake and corn have been given, especially upon the 
;rass land. There has been no such scarcity of labour as to raise the question 
;)f the necessity for laying down land for want of it. No doubt labour is more 
!xpensive, without, at present, the promised result that the men are to be 
nore efficient by reason of their increased cost. 
In laying down land to permanent jiasture very much depends upon climate. 
Durs is not adapted to it, and the obtaining a moderately good turf is a slow 
irocess ; wliile, as to leaving artificial grasses more than one year — the Cotswold 
Bills excepted — we know that we can grow a greater crop of wheat after one 
,'ear's seeds than after two. So we go on as heretofore, very little affected in 
ipur management by the high price of stock or increased cost of labour, content 
Ito let the one square the other, and very glad if it covers the increase of 
ates also. 
C. Kandell. 
14. Aklet Castle, neae Bewdlet. 
I have not kept my farming-accounts with anything like precision during 
.he twenty-two years I have been proprietor of this estate (of now about 
2940 acres). As far as my memory serves me, I think about 150 acres of this 
oarish — rather more than less — have been converted from arable into pasture 
and, part having been in my own occupation, and part in my tenants'. The 
stiff or strong land has been found the most suitable for permanent grass. 
Fenant-farmers, as a class, are not sufficiently attentive to nev/ly laid-down 
pasture land to bring it into perfection in a few years. Throughout this 
ocality they have not sulBcient capital to make the conversion of arable 
and into grass a favourite change to them ; inasmuch as too many of them 
:!annot afford to wait for the return which pasture land would give, and also 
