100 
On Reclaiming Heath Land. 
and surely hope for their progressive amelioration and permanent 
improvement. 
The next and concluding observation I have to make is with 
regard to overstocking. It is a very common error, and one 
which at least one halt' of our farmers are in the habit of commit- 
ting. In the winter season especially all newly- reel aimed heath 
land should be left with a good covering of grass upon it, in order 
to protect it from the influences of the weather. Deprived of the 
heath, its natural covering, it necessarily, to use a common ex- 
pression, " gets starved," and requires a substitute if eaten too close 
in the autumn or commencement of winter. When this is the 
case. Nature steps in with her mantle of moss to supply the defect. 
In each succeeding year the same error is committed, the herbage 
degenerates both in quantity and quality ; an annual unceasing 
contest is maintained between the moss and the grass, each 
struggling for the ascendancy ; and man, from short-sighted views 
of economy, insensibly assists the former until nature gradually 
turns the balance, and thus completes the victory. Wliereas, had 
an opposite and more sensible course been pursued, by keeping 
always a good coat of herbage upon the land, and thus protecting it 
through the inclemency of winter, the cattle, though possibly fewer 
in number, would have been better fed, the top sward would have 
been considerably thickened, and a vigorous braid of grass, at least 
a fortnight earlier in the spring, when it is most valuable, would 
have been the result. 
I have now to apologise for having introduced anything into 
this treatise which the scientific or practical reader may consider 
extraneous to the subject, or for making any omissions of what 
would have thrown additional light upon it. My object has been 
to present the reader with as much practical information as I 
could well compress together in a short compass, leaving out 
chemical and geological remarks, with their technical phraseolo - 
gies, which are little vmderstood by the generality of farmers. 
The importance and value of this learning, however, I am bound 
to acknowledge, in order to arrive at a proper application of ma- 
nures to soils of various compositions. 
In advocating what I consider the best system or systems of re- 
claiming heath land, it has been my chief object to keep in view 
an efficient method combined with economy — a quick and ade- 
quate return for the outlay of capital, not only without inflicting 
either a temporary or permanent injury upon the land; but, on 
the contrary, by a steady, safe, and prudent course of manage^ 
meat, to promote its progressive and permanent improvement : 
and I hope the time is not far distant when many of our barren 
heaths will be made fruitful by judicious and skilful management 
through the more extensive diffusion of agricultural science, which 
