On Breaking up Grass Lands. 
169 
eaten off with sheep in the succeeding spring, and then sown with 
spring corn and grass seeds. This would form a strong contrast 
to the practice I have witnessed of taking three or four corn-crops 
in succession, a year of beans, and then wheat, succeeded by three 
or four other corn-crops again ; and at last, when failures have 
succeeded failures, leaving the land to nature to be renovated. 
It is against such practices as those, which are injurious to all 
parties, that landowners must take precaution. If we look into 
what has taken place under our own observation, and call to mind 
the mischievous effects that have resulted from the improper use 
of newly broken up land, we shall cease to wonder at what may 
be considered absurd clauses in agreements respecting the break- 
ing up of grass land, and the tardiness with which owners of 
property have given their consent to it ; and although we may 
admit it to be desirable, and can prove its utility, I presume no 
one will be so short-sighted or careless as to allow it without 
restriction. There should be some clear understanding as to 
the future management of the land, for it is to this that the 
landlord must look. This is what will determine whether it shall 
be an advantage or a disadvantage — an advantage if well and pro- 
perly cropped, and well farmed, but a disadvantage if the land be 
harassed with too many corn- crops, and if little or nothing be 
consumed upon it ; and when exhaustion is complete, the culti- 
vation be abandoned and left to nature, to repair in an age what 
carelessness had so soon and so recklessly accomplished. The 
farmer who may be guilty of committing such mischief, although 
it may be unwittingly, is certainly an injurer of his own interest, 
a spoiler of his landlord s substance, a scourge to the labourer, 
and an impoverisher of his country. 
The coldest land, however, may be made to answer under cul- 
tivation, if suitablv managed, as the following: instance will show ' 
and though the operations were on a small scale individually, they 
show what uiigfht be done on larger farms : — In North Wilts there 
is a considerable extent of land called Braydon,* which is singu- 
larly notorious for being worthless land. When disforested and 
disposed of by the Crown it was literally a wilderness of waste. 
It became the property of various persons, some of whom had 
estates adjoining, who either planted it or broke up the turf, and 
* I have great pleasure in being enabled, through the kindness of Pro- 
fessor Way of the Royal Agricultural College, to furnish the readers of the 
Journal with an analysis of this peculiar soil. — J. B. 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 
May 2:171(1, 1846. 
My dear Sir, — I have completed the analysis of the soil from Braydon 
which you kindly sent me. I should remark that, unlike many soils, the 
one in question is so free from coarse particles that, with the exception of 
