128 Recent Experiences in laying down Land to Grass. 
[For Schedule of Questions, seepage 126.] 
Mr. Albert Pell — continued. 
once with the seeds and brush harrow. Thus I have a good plant this dry year, 
lied clover is not to he relied on on my Northamptonshire farm. In Cam- 
hridgeshire (greensand and gault) it never misses, hut 4 lbs. is enough for 
permanent pasture ; and a remarkable thing is, that in Northamptonshire 
farm sowing 4 lbs. red clover with the otlaer seed all seems to hit and 
stand, but sowing 12 lbs. to mow all seems to go off. 
Mr. James Howard, Clapham Parle, BedfordsJdre. 
1. Boulder clay. 
2. Yes ; drained 36 inches to 42 inches deep. Drains 21 feet apart. 
3. Rainfall, 25 inches. Climate, tolerably mild. 
4. Seedsman's mixture ; but I bought half of one emineut seedsman and 
half of another, and mixed the two ; 1 have found this a safe and good plan 
vv^ith grass as well as with other seeds. I have always been successful in 
getting a plant since I adopted it. 
5. A little ryegrass came up. 
6. I have sown down to grass some 300 acres; I commenced by sowing 
down with a corn crop, but when corn fell to a low price I was led to 
abandon the practice, and I sowed upon bare fallow. Some of my best 
pastures were summer-fallowed for two years in succession, and with clay 
laud out of condition I should again adopt this method. Latterly, with my 
land in good condition, 1 have sown it down with sainfoin, and after the 
first or second year have sown a small quantity of grass seeds. A pasture 
may in this way be established without the farmer feeling the cost of laying 
down as he does in the ordinary way. 1 have tried lucerne as well as sain- 
foin, but the results were not quite as good. 
7. Autumn. If sown in spring, when vegetation is quick, the weeds 
run a race with the grasses, smother a large proportion, and get possession 
of the ground. 
8. As far as the exigencies of tlie farm permitted, I have avoided putting 
sheep upon it or heavy horned stock. If sheep were put on they were folded — 
the folds of ample size and moved daily, if grazed, young horned stock are 
best. I never mow newly sown fields, except the exigencies of the farm 
demand it. As to manuring, my rule is " little and often " ; heavy dressings 
promote the growth of the coarser gi-asses. Farmyard manure should be 
evenly and uniformly spread over the surface. To effect this object, after 
the men have finished, I send the hay-making machine, in the forward action, 
over the field ; this scatters the manure very evenly. 
y. Disajipears. 
10. Yes. Except the pasture is manured annually the clover will dis- 
appear — at all events on ray soil. 
11. It all depends upon management. 1 have a small pightel on which 
rams and sheep for shows have been kept, and, of course, fed highly. After 
four years the enclosure had the appearance of an old pasture ; but unless 
specially treated it t;ikes fourteen years on this soil to make a decent 
pasture — and oven then it lacks the springiness of old turf. This elasticity 
is of course duo to the roots of former generations of grasses, which time 
alone will produce. 
12. Not upon my own land; but an immediate neighbour allowed two 
fields to " tumble down " to grass. I pass them constantly, they have been 
down about four years, and have yielded very little keep. The grasses do 
not appear to be of a desirable kind, and the example is not likely to be 
followed by his neighbours. 
