260 On Laying down Land to Permanent Grass. 
manures, a small quantity of good seeds may not only be main- 
tained, notwithstanding the deterioration of the soil by rye-grass, 
but may even be so strengthened and nourished as to gain in 
size and to tiller out and multiply to an extent sufficient to cover 
the ground previously occupied by the rye-grass or other tem- 
porary plants which, at the end of three or four years, have died 
out. In all other respects this expensive course of manuring is 
neither desirable nor convenient. It is not necessary for the pur- 
pose of this article to deny that by extravagant manuring good 
pastures may in course of time be formed, although a mix- 
true including rye-grass or other injurious grasses be sown, — but 
rather to demonstrate how permanent pastures of the best 
possible description can be formed economically, and with 
a certainty that they will not die out, or deteriorate at the 
end of four or five years, or at any future time when the heavy 
manuring is discontinued. The expense of getting the land 
into good heart, the addition of a liberal, but not an extravagant, 
supply of manure, and, above all, the sowing of an adequate 
supply of good seeds of the right kinds, will incontestably save 
infinite expense, loss, and disappointment in the future. 
It may be well before closing to give the following summary 
of the principal points which my experience has led me in the 
main to adopt, for the laying down of the best permanent 
pastures on any fairly good and suitable lands. 
The preparation of the land is not in my opinion of prime 
importance. The cultivator must nevertheless keep in view 
that the richer the land so much the better will the grass grow. 
I hold that the main point to be attended to is the employ- 
ment of the best seeds. All seeds should be tested by a compe- 
tent botanist, with the view of determining whether they are 
really the kind ordered, are free from weeds, and such dangerous 
ingredients as ergot, dodder, &c. ; and whether they have suf- 
ficient germinating power to justify their being sown. 
My experience would lead me to employ the mixtures stated 
in the following tables. I have specified the number of seeds 
that these mixtures contain per acre. If all these seeds were to 
produce plants, the first growth would still be only half of the 
number that Sinclair has estimated as existing in established 
pastures. But my belief is that the cost of employing a suffi- 
cient quantity of seed to produce the 40,000,000 plants in an 
acre would be too great to make it possible to use them. And 
yet more important is the consideration that not only greater 
economy but greater certainty as to the results will be obtained 
if the good grasses are allowed partially to seed and sow them- 
selves. A good thick pasture can in this way be secured at a 
comparatively small cost. 
