254 On Laying down Land to Permanent Grass. 
had been sown, it is very difficult to get other grasses to grow. 
I have come to the conclusion that rye-grass is certain to cause 
exhaustion to the soil, an opinion in which there are many to 
support me, although others, doubtless, are ready to dispute it. 
Having arrived at the point of the necessity of eliminating 
rye-grass, it may fairly be asked how are we to get the good 
grasses. I have succeeded, after very much difficulty, in getting 
all grasses good by getting different grasses from different 
merchants, and when the seed was not sufficietitlv good to sow, 
leaving it and trusting to next year ; but where it was only 
inferior in germinating power, I have sown an extra quantity 
to make up for want of this quality. 
The best means of laying land down to permanent pasture 
has been fully and carefully entered into by Mr, Evershed in 
his valuable paper read at the Farmers' Club, This ought 
to be carefully studied by all who intend laying down land to 
pasture, I have myself laid land down in almost every tilth, 
but, where the seed has been good, I could never see much 
difference in the results, except such as were accounted for by 
the richness or poverty of the soil. Where the land was in 
good heart and rich, the grass grew strong and better, and 
where it was poor and out of heart, it grew weaker, but in both 
cases the grass was there. Unquestionably the better condition 
the land is in, the stronger the grass will be. It must be 
decided what amount of money a person can afford, and whether 
he can prepare the ground expensively or not, I have arrived 
at the best results by sowing the grass seeds with rape and 
mustard, and feeding them off together with lambs highly fed 
with artificial food. I should strongly advise all who have 
really valuable land, and not too wet, to lay it down in this 
way. On the other hand, if the land is of very inferior quality, 
it might hardly pay for expensive cultivation, and in that case 
it would be best to sow it with a thin crop of corn, and after the 
grass had got fully established in the following summer, to let 
sheep run over it fed with food of high manurial value. 
The different habits and peculiarities of the best permanent 
grasses have not been sufficiently studied, and consequently 
many of our best pastures are deteriorating year by year without 
the owners being aware of it. The flower-heads of all the best 
permanent grasses are much liked and greedily eaten by stock ; 
consequently they never come to seed unless very thinly stocked 
indeed, or a crop of hay is cut very late, whereas, on the other 
hand, the flower-heads of the worthless grasses which are dis- 
liked by stock are continually and constantly seeding, such as 
the brome grasses, the soft woolly grass [IIolcus Za/ia/Ms), creeping 
rooted soft grass (II. 7noUis), barley grass [Ilordeum pratense), 
