Management of Grass Land. 
1G5 
cienclcs of our present practice, but rather to call attention to 
the great opportunity afforded by the present high prices of meat 
to improve our grass land and our banker's balances by one and 
the same operation. 
The problem before us is how to improve 22 millions of acres 
of grass land, so as materially to increase the production of meat 
and leave a safe profit to the improvers. These 22 millions of 
acres contain every variety of land, and are placed under an 
equal variety of management, and the value of the gross annual 
produce may be said to vary between the extreme limits of 10/. 
and 5s. per statute acre. It may be well to define at the outset 
what is meant by first-rate grass land, that we may have before 
us a standard of excellence towards which improvers may strive 
to approach as nearly as circumstances will permit. The rent 
actually paid is clearly no guide at all. The amount obtainable 
at annual lettings by public competition approaches much more 
nearly to the value ; ljut as annual letting is seldom practised, 
and cannot be recommended except under very exceptional 
circumstances, I prefer to take as my standard of excellence land 
which, in a good grazing year, will produce 20 imperial stone of 
meat per acre without artificial assistance. 
Unfortunately the quantity of such land is extremely small, 
and is for the most part confined to the alluvial flats which have 
accumulated near the existing or former outlets of some of our 
tidal rivers. The far-famed pastures along the banks of the Axe 
the Brue and the Parret, in Somersetshire, are of this character, 
and constitute probably the most extensive flat of first-rate 
grass land in the United Kingdom. Here may be seen 1000 
acres let annually for grazing by the trustees of one estate, which 
bring in between 5000Z. and 6000/. per annum. The land is let 
annually in 54 fields of various sizes, and clear of all rates, taxes, 
and tithes. In 1870 the 54 lots let for 5948/., and in con- 
sequence of the extreme drought of that summer the lettings in 
1871 were reduced to 5664/. ; but it is a striking proof of the 
intrinsic excellence of the pasture that, after 1870, one of 
the worst grazing years on record, this estate should still have 
let in 1871 for 5/. 13s. M. per acre! 
The residents in the most noted grazing districts are each 
confident that their own is the best in the kingdom, and I have 
repeatedly been challenged to express an opinion as to their com- 
parative merits. In the Eastern Counties the district around 
Boston is believed to be unrivalled in Great Britain, and doubt- 
less amongst the old enclosures in that neighbourhood are to be 
found fields which, from their depth of soil and the richness of 
their herbage, are acre for acre as good as any ; but when speaking 
of grazing districts, the great uniformity of character which 
