174 
Management of Grass Land. 
well. Should a few acres be contiguous to a feeding pasture 
on higher land, I have found it answer well to let even fatten- 
ing cattle have the run of the whole. They highly relish the 
variety of the herbage thus afforded them, and in dry seasons 
the black-land pasture will often keep its colour and freshness 
when the other burns. Should there be three or more feet of 
peat upon the clav, it answers best to break it up and give the 
land a substantial dressing of clay before laying it down again, 
either by throwing it over the land from trenches, as practised in 
some of the eastern counties, or, if too deep for spade-work, then 
by carting it from pits. When this expense has been incurred it 
will probably become doubtful whether to lay it down again to 
grass, or to keep it under the plough, for which, after claying, 
it is extremely well suited. 
Frequent mention has been made of a mixed top-dressing 
which has been found to be a valuable application to grass land. 
It has been gradually arrived at after many trials and modifi- 
cations, and consists of nitrOf/en, phosphoric acid, and potash. 
These substances may be supplied in the form in which they 
can be most readily and cheaply obtained at the time and 
place required. The nitrogen may be furnished in guano, soot, 
nitrate of soda, or in the more specific form of muriate or 
sulphate of ammonia. The phosphoric acid may be obtained 
from bones, mineral superphosphate, or some of the poorer 
guanos. The potash similarly may be applied in the form of 
kainit, sulphate of potash, &c. The particular substances I am 
employing this season (1872) are nitrate of soda, mineral super- 
phosphate, and kainit, in the following proportions : 1 cwt. of 
nitrate of soda, 2 cwt. of mineral superphosphate, and 3 cwt. 
of kainit per acre for pasture. At present prices this costs about 
425. per acre. For mowing land, where no manure is used, 
I should add to the above quantities ^ cwt. of nitrate of soda, 
making the whole outlay about 50s. per acre. Where land is 
annually mown a dressing of this manurial value is required 
every year to prevent deterioration, except in exceptional cases, 
such as deep alluvial land, waterside meadows subject to flooding, 
&.C. The best practice is, no doubt, to manure mowing land 
regularly with good farmyard dung ; but in the numerous 
instances in which this cannot be done, the meadow may be 
maintained in full productiveness by a good manuring once in 
three or four years, and a dressing of the above mixture in the 
intermediate seasons. For pastures it is not contended that a 
dressing of this character is required year by year, but after 
laying down a field to permanent grass it is absolutely necessary 
to till hard for three or four years in order to keep it steadily 
progressive, and when grass land has been long neglected, and 
