Management of Grass Land. 
175 
is thoroughly out of condition, one dressing will not suffice. It 
requires following up for two or three successive years before 
the traces of long neglect will be completely obliterated. 
My first attempt at top-dressing grass was in 1841, on a field 
of voung seeds which showed a want of condition, and I applied 
a liberal dressing of nitrate of soda in the month of April. 
This salt had been only recently introduced to the notice of 
agriculturists, and 1 watched the result with considerable inte- 
rest. The field soon assumed a deep green colour, and showed 
unmistakable signs of vigorous growth. It was stocked with 
sheep, which, coming from turnips, ate it well ; but, to my sur- 
prise, they were seized with scour, and did not thrive. I had not 
then become aware that agricultural products raised by heavy 
dressings of nitrogenous manure are always of inferior quality, 
and unwholesome for stock. As this is a point of importance 
in the management of either grass or arable land, I shall take 
some pains to establish the fact. When Peruvian guano was 
first brought to this country, and used freely for the growth of 
corn and roots, it was not uncommon to meet with instances 
where its liberal use was followed, in the case of wheat, by a 
gross broad flagged plant, which produced a large crop of soft 
dingy straw, and a small yield of lean dark-coloured grain. 
The cattle disliked the straw and the millers disliked the 
grain. Nitrate of soda, soot, or any other ammoniacal dress- 
ing too freely used, produces a similar result. If too much 
nitrogen be applied to turnips the result is rapid growth and 
speedy decay, and stock fed on them do not thrive without a 
considerable admixture of other food. In 1846 I saw white 
turnips that had been grown by a heavy dressing of guano 
without other manure. They were as big as a man's head the 
first week in August, were rotten at heart by the end of the 
month, and collapsed altogether by the middle of September. 
On grass land the effect of heavy nitrogenous dressings may be 
observed in most pastures at places where the stock are accus- 
tomed to congregate for shade or shelter. The dark-coloured 
coarse grass grown under such circumstances is familiar to every 
farmer, and it is equally well known to him that cattle refuse to 
eat such grass, except under the pressure of absolute want. A 
still more instructive illustration is to be found when heavy rains 
in July or August follow a period of drought. At such a time 
fields of clover and young grass, which have carried a heavy 
stock of sheep for some months, become absolutely poisonous to 
lambs, and unwholesome for stock of any kind. Even rabbits 
and hares from an adjoining cover frequently die in numbers 
from eating the luxuriant herbage which immediately springs 
up. This is clearly due to the droppings of the sheep 
both solid and liquid, which have, during the dry weather 
