Beceyit Ex^enences in laxjiiig down Land to Gh'ass. 139 
[For Schedule of Questiom, see page 126.] 
Mh. Clabe Seweli. Read — continued. 
then gradually disappear. A moderate quantity of ryegi-ass does not seem 
to injiu-e the more permanent grasses, and it certainly is of great adyantago 
to the hay-crop, and pays the farmer. 
10. I neyer feed young grasses •syith sheep, saye running the ewes oyer 
them in the winter to crop off any rough grass. I like to stock yomig grasses 
with cows or young cattle eating decorticated cotton-cake. 
11. At least twenty in Norfolk. 
12. I haye seen a good deal of land that has " tumbled down to gi-ass— 
i.e. land gone out of ciiltiyation, without any grass seeds being sown upon ir. 
After the first year the annual weeds disappear, and in a few seasons the dock 
and thistle seem worn out. Then the foul grasses take possession of the 
land, and afterwai-ds they appear to giye way to better grasses, wliich in time 
produce a little decent feed. But such fields cannot make a pasture in a 
generation, if they eyer do. 
1.3. "Where the new grasses are deyoted to grazing and rearing stock the 
population is almost banished ; it is eyen sensibly diminished when arable 
land is turned into pasture and stocked with cows. 
14. I haye long contended that upon our hea^y and light lauds it would 
be well that mixed seeds should lay two years instead of one, certainly in 
these depressed times, if not always. The third year the best seeds generally 
die off, and if the land is given to natural grass it becomes fearfully foul. 
15. It seems a hopeless and almost impossible task to conyert much of 
the arable land of East Anglia into permanent grass. It is a thousand pities 
that so much of our sheep walks, heaths, and warrens were broken up years 
ago. The soil is so sandy and poor, thrt no sort of grass will grow upon it 
for more than a year or two. It dies off, and the land is left as bare as the 
sand on the seashore. A better class of land, with a calcareous subsoil, 
produces good sainfoin, and this invaluable plant should be kept down for 
years, instead of being, as it generally is, ploughed up at the end of twelve 
months. Lucerne is grown in patches as a fodder crop, but there is no reason 
why a very much larger extent should not be sown for hay and feed. It will 
flourish upon all moderately light and loamy soils, will resist drought, and 
wUl stand for years ; and when the plant is running out, the harrows, or even 
a scarifier, may be used, and permanent grass seeds sown ; this is decidedly 
a cheap way of forming a pasture. 
'^Lr. EoBEKT A. Elliot, Clifton Fad; Kelso. 
After having tried every known system of laying down, I have come to 
the following conclusions : — 
That for climates like those of Eoxburghshire the safest plan, both for 
avoiding risk from drought and frost, and certainly as economical a plan as 
any other, is to lay down with a thin seeding of oats or barley, and leave a 
very long stubble to protect the plants from the autumn and winter frosts. 
Xo stock should be put on after harvest, and none the following spring. In 
this first spring all blank places to be seeded. Men, with handrakes, to scratch 
and seed vacant spaces will cost about a shilling an acre. This reseeding is 
most important, not only to fill land with grass, but to exclude weeds and 
worthless grasses, which would otherwise get in and spread through the 
pasture. Then take a crop of hay, and graze aftermath with yoimg cattle or 
lambs. In the year following graze in earh' part of season with yoimg cattle 
only, as grazing in spring with sheep is adverse to the closing up of the pasture. 
Some sheep may be put on later in the season. 
