370 Laying down Clay-land intended for Permanent Pasture. 
as they spring, and they must not be upon them in wet weather; 
to avoid this there must be a field of turf or old seed to take 
them to when their treading would injure the young seeds. In 
the following spring these young seeds should be folded off by 
ewes and lambs, the latter going forward by the aid of lamb- 
gates, and both getting pulped mangolds mixed with chaff and 
oilcake (linseed and cotton-seed cake mixed) ; the back hurdles 
should be frequently moved, for two reasons — first, that the land 
should be equally manured ; second, that the young shoots of 
the grasses be not eaten down again immediately. A second 
folding may be made with yearling ewes, a third with the general 
flock, each lot receiving ^ lb. cotton-cake daily, but none 
kept on the land after October. If this treatment be repeated 
the third year, the turf will be established, but the less it is 
stocked during winter for several years the better. If a crop of 
corn is taken the first year, which would usually be the case in 
the hands of a tenant, the same method should be adopted in 
eating off the young seeds, but it will not often happen that they 
require to be fed off after harvesting the corn crop ; if they do, 
it should be by folding, not turning sheep into the whole field. 
All this requires attention, and involves cost, but let no one 
suppose that a turf of any value can be obtained on clay-land 
without considerable cost. It may be obtained by repeated 
applications of manure, mowing, and grazing by young cattle ; 
but this will be more expensive than the employment of sheep ; 
they will repay directly and indirectly the cost of all the food 
and labour bestowed upon them, and in the way indicated a 
good turf may be obtained. 
I know that what will more frequently happen is that the 
seeds will be sown with a corn crop without manure, and that 
they will be grazed by sheep and other stock in the ordinary 
way, with this result — they will carry a moderate amount of 
stock the first year, very much less the second, still less the 
third : by that time the sown grasses will have died out, and 
for several years the pastures will be all but worthless, and 
nothing gained but getting rid of the expense of cultivation. 
Manuring may strengthen the natural grasses, and after a time 
■enable the land to carry store stock, but for the sort of land in 
question I think the treatment I have described will be found 
eventually the most satisfactory. 
