On Permanent and Temporary Meadows and Pastures. 217 
course of cultivation by which results superior to those given 
by inferior grass-lands will be obtained. 
Breaking up inferior Grass-land. — Much has been said both 
for and against the breaking up of inferior grass-lands. Some 
recommend it strongly, basing their opinion on the fact that 
broken up pasture-land will produce large arable crops for 
several years, and would probably be laid down to grass again 
in improved physical condition. Others, on the contrary, reject 
this practice, because, after breaking up the pasture, they con- 
sider they get nothing sufficient to recompense them, and they 
find that the pasture, when again established, after several years 
of expensive cultivation, is hardly better than that which 
preceded it. 
Both of these contradictory opinions may be true according 
to the varied composition of the several soils. If the mineral 
elements are abundant, breaking up the pasture cannot fail to 
give good results, for it mixes the upper more nitrogenous layer, 
with the lower one which is richer in mineral matters, sub- 
divides and aerates the soil, and so favours those chemical 
reactions, by means of which the requisite elements pass from 
an inert to an assimilable state. But if the land is deficient 
in one or more of these elements, a state of things by no means 
rare — for had that not been the case the grass-land would have 
continued to give good results — the breaking up can only be 
successful, if the one or more elements which are wanting are 
supplied in sufficient quantity', and in an assimilable condition. 
It is then, above all, indispensable to be well informed on this 
point ; and for this end to analyse a judiciously chosen sample 
of the soil of the grass-land on which it is proposed to operate. 
According to the results of the analysis, such elements should 
be employed as will efficiently supply the needs of the growing 
plants. 
I will now give two practical examples. 
First Example. — In 1874 I was shown some land from which 
good crops were unobtainable in spite of careful culture, and an 
abundant supply of farmyard-manure. 
It was a field belonging to a farm at Moissy-Cramayel, near 
Lieu-Saint (Seine-et-Marne). It was surrounded, at least to all 
appearances, by fields of the same character of soil, and from 
which the best results that the most intelligent " intensive " 
cultivation could aspire to, had been obtained. The only differ- 
ence between it and the adjoining fields was that it had been 
under grass from time immemorial, and had been broken up 
recently because the grass grown on it did not pay the rent of 
the land. 
