Laying down Land to Permanent Pasture. 
607 
and have come to the conclusion there are many agencies at 
work, and that it is a mistake to depend on any single agent. 
;r 1 Allowing that the land is of fair quality, clean, and in mode- 
ate condition, and sown with seeds such as I have recommended, 
when first fed off with sheep it will be noticed that the plants 
are more or less detached, but as the year advances they increase 
in size, and the clovers send out their creeping stems and gradu- 
ally unite the grasses together. 
It will also be noticed what an enormous amount of work is 
done by worms, as has been so clearly and ably demonstrated by 
Darwin. I hav^e seen a worm-cast thrown over a plant of 
cocksfoot, which afterwards pushed out young stems on all sides ; 
then a seed of crested dogstail fell into the worm-cast, and 
immediately the new plant grew there with the utmost vigour, 
finding all the nourishment it required from the worm-cast : it 
then pushed its roots through the cocksfoot, and rapidly the two 
I became a compact mass. In the formation of pastures this 
process is again and again repeated with other grasses in dif- 
ferent order, such as meadow fescue on foxtail, and foxtail on 
crested dogstail, until after a time the whole surface becomes one 
i compact mass of herbage and roots, which protects the young 
shoots and the crowns of the plants from the treading df stock and 
from drought and cold, and leads to the desired end — a good 
turf. I always like to leave a certain percentage of good grasses 
to seed, as they fill up the bare spaces, and the stalks, if not 
eaten by stock, serve to enrich the soil and defend the young 
I and tender plants during the first winter after germinating. I 
j feed with artificial food of as high manurial value as I can, for 
i the more rapidly the grasses grow the deeper the roots will penc- 
il trate and the more the plants will be able to withstand the 
i vicissitudes of weather. If a piece of old pasture be soaked in 
I water until the whole of the earth be removed, the nature of the 
turf, the formation of which I have tried here to explain, will be 
j clearly demonstrated. 
ij From what I have said, it will be apparent that the worm is a 
very valuable assistant to the farmer in forming a new pasture. 
1 There are, besides, aspects of the operations of worms on which 
I have not touched, but which are fully expounded in the work 
; of the late Mr. Darwin. In it is an important question, which 
has not received the attention it deserves, whether some of the 
1 artificial manures we employ may not be destructive to this 
I j humble but important assistant ? 
i I The value of so-called weeds as ingredients in the food of 
; ) stock, from a medicinal or any other point of view, is a subject 
i I demanding further and much more careful investigation than it 
» has yet received. No doubt some of these plants are essential 
