1 52 Recent Exj^erienees in laying doivn Land io Grass. 
L. Faunce De Laune, at Sharsted Court, near Sittingbourue in 
Kent, has lately converted a gi'eat portion of his estate into 
permanent pasture. The appearance of his grass-fields is 
simply magnificent ; they appear to be full of manure, and full 
of growth. Everything has been done to ensure success. Belts 
of timber have been planted for shelter, and tall fences of hop- 
poles packed with hop-bine have been erected for the same pur- 
pose — protection from the cold winds off the North Sea being 
very necessary. Watering-places are found in every enclosure, 
the water being caught on roads and brought in underground 
pipes to reservoirs connected with the drinking-ponds. The 
timber used for gates, hurdles, and hop-poles is all creosoted, 
and is almost imperishable. The land is very heavily stocked 
with a breeding flock of Kentish sheep ; they have additional 
food of mangolds, thousand-headed kale, and plenty of cake and 
com; the gi'een food is usually consumed on the grass, and, 
with the cake and corn, manures it very effectively. . 
The grass is an accomplished fact : it is the most uniform 
rich gi'een sward that can be imagined, but the cost of obtaining 
it would have been unjustifiable had grass been the only object 
in view. Mr. De Laune, however, is happily situated ; his soil 
is good brick-earth above chalk, and he is in the country where 
cheny orchards abound. A gi'eat deal of the artificial feeding 
of the sheep is for the benefit of the cherry-trees with which 
nearly every grass-field is planted. There are patriarchal old 
cherry trees, with far-reaching branches, and there are young 
cherry trees with onlj' a few twigs on the stem they are grafted 
on ; but all alike are flourishing, and all but the old ones are 
carefully protected from the sheep by ingenious little cages of 
creosoted gate-hurdles. With the return that Mr. De Laune is 
entitled to expect from his cherry trees when in full bearing, 
almost any expenditure on fertilisers is warranted, and the gi'ass 
shows the benefit in the meantime. 
At Syston Park, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, I had 
afforded to me by Sir John Thorold an opportunity of witness- 
ing the progress of a very interesting experiment of pasture and 
arable farming combined. Certain farms being in hand. Sir John 
Thorold has been farming them himself, and within the last five 
or six years he has laid a very considerable extent to grass. 
There is no inducement here, as at Sharsted Court, to manure 
lieavily for fruit trees ; but the farming is of the best, the pastures 
receiving a treatment very much above the average of land laid 
down. The soil is very various, ranging from stiff' clay to sand. 
The experiment is still in progress, few of the fields liave got 
beyond the critical age ; but even if it is ultimately found 
necessary to break tbem up, they will have stored up some 
fertility in the period of rest, and at present, keeping in view 
