178 
Management of Grass Land. 
to the growth of clover, I immediately adopted a revised code of 
laying down land to permanent pasture. In 1869 and 1870 I 
had 50 acres to lay down. Three fields, containing together 
40 acres, were dressed twice with the mixture above recom- 
mended : 1st, when the barley and seeds were sown, and 
2ndly, a few months after the barley-crop was harvested. Another 
field of ten acres, of better quality than the other three, I sowed 
down in good condition, but without the potash and superphos- 
phate dressing. The whole four fields were grazed with sheep 
the first season. The three first-mentioned remained as full of 
clover and fine grasses at the end of the season as at the begin- 
ning, whereas the ten acres not so dressed, though carrying a 
good stock of sheep, gradually lost their plant of clover, and 
began the following spring to show indications of the dry, benty 
appearance, which I had previously found to supervene so gene- 
rally in the second, and still more in the third, year after laying 
down. I mean for the future, therefore, to graze newly-laid grass 
for permanent pasture with sheep until firm enough to carry 
cattle, relying on the top-dressing to maintain the quality of the 
young grass against all comers. 
The two men most competent to advise on scientific questions 
affecting British agriculture are undoubtedly Mr. Lawes and 
Professor Voelcker, and I am happy to be able to quote them 
both in support of the recommendations here given for the treat- 
ment of grass land. The experimental plots at Rothamsted (the 
produce of which is annually mown and removed) show con- 
clusively that any application to grass land which does not contain 
potash, if repeated for several successive years, results in a decline, 
and eventually an extinction of the clovers, vetches, and finer 
grasses ; and though Mr. Lawes is not yet satisfied that for 
general use potash can be recommended as a paving application, 
1 am authorised to state that within the last few months his 
advice to a gentleman asking him to prescribe for some old pas- 
ture land which required renovation, was to apply 1^ cwt. of 
nitrate of soda, 2^ cwt. of superphosphate, and 3 cwt. of kainit 
per acre, which it will be observed differs very slightly from the 
mixture advocated above. » 
Professor Voelcker, in articles published in this Journal, has 
pointed out the excellent effect produced on clover by the us.e of 
superphosphate and potash salts on light land. He was, however, 
until very recently of opinion that no corresponding benefit was 
produced by this combination on clay ; but 1 quote from a letter 
received from him witliin the last few weeks, which shows that 
he has somewhat modified that opinion : " More than twelve 
months ago you brought to my knowledge the fact that, potash 
salts gave you a satisfactory result on your heavy land. From, 
