-sOO Report on haying doxcn Land to Permanent Pasture. 
the result of his experience. It only serves to show how greatly 
soil, climate, and local conditions differ. But, putting aside 
extreme cases, it appears that for the generality of soils a bare 
fallow or a green crop is a necessary preparation. 
A turnip-crop consumed on the land is a good method of ob- 
taining the necessary manurial condition, especially if cake and 
corn are also given to the stock. The turnips should be grown 
with a liberal dressing of manure, consisting of farmyard-manure 
as well as artificial, if possible. Light land is especially benefited 
by feeding with sheep. On heavy land, where a bare fallow is 
deemed advisable, a good dressing of bones or superphosphate, 
or a mixture of artificial manures, should be applied to the land 
when sown down. A few of the witnesses also recommend the 
use of lime, which is, no doubt, necessary on manv soils. Con- 
siderable differences of opinion exist as to whether the seeds should 
be sown down with or without a crop of corn. The objection 
to sowing with a corn-crop is principally the risk of the com 
lodging, and so killing the grasses, as the land is generally 
more highly manured when prepared for permanent pasture than 
when seeds are sown in the usual rotation. Sowing with a 
sprinkling of rape is a common practice, the rape to be eaten 
off green with sheep, and this appears to answer well in the 
majority of cases. Care, however, should be taken not to 
eat off too closely, or the young grasses may suffer, and on light 
soils many of the plants may be pulled completely out of the 
ground by the grazing sheep. Few of our correspondents appear 
to sow the seeds alone, except those who advocate autumn sowing. 
Mr. James Howard, among others, practises this system. He 
says, " I have sown in spring, and in August and September ; the 
latter is best, and less expensive, as vegetation is dormant, and 
the grasses cover the ground before the weeds begin to grow " 
(p. 486). There is a risk, however, attending autumn sowing, 
as the voung clover is liable to be greatly damaged by slugs and 
the winter frost. If sown alone in the spring, and a hot dry 
summer follows, there is, again, a probability of the grasses being 
almost completely destroyed bv drought. It is certainly an 
advantage if any kind of crop can be grown simultaneously with 
the grasses in their first season, if the practice is not detrimental 
to the capabilities of the future pasture ; and most farmers would 
find it more convenient, if not more profitable, that that crop 
should be corn. A thin sowing of barley, oats, or wheat, is 
therefore strongly recommended by many. The seeds appear to 
do almost equally well sown with the spring-corn, or sown in the 
spring on autumn-wheat. Mr. Martin H. Sutton* says that oats 
* 'Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society,' vol. xxii., part ii. 
