On Breaking up Grass Lands. 
185 
up. The fair and equitable distribution of the above advantage 
might be 4s. Ad. to the tenant, and to the landowner 3s. per acre, 
besides 19s. an acre paid annually in return for his outlay. The 
advantages to the labourer in employment are, twice the amount 
of the work of the pasture, and the food derived from the land 
would be nearly double the money value of the dairy produce 
per acre. 
I now proceed to the second head of inquiry — namely, the best 
method of turning grass land into arable. 
Practice of Breaking up. 
The most important preliminary step to be taken previously to 
breaking up pasture lands is to have them well drained, if the 
soil be heavy and requires it, and then to pare and burn the sur- 
face for the purpose of reducing the grass, weeds, and toughly 
matted sward to loose, charred ashes, which possess highly fertiliz- 
ing qualities. The half of the ashes, which are frequently very 
abundant (in some cases more than 600 bushels per acre), may 
be carted to other lands about to be sown with turnips, and the 
other half left for use on the land that produced them. When 
the land from which the ashes have been derived is very rich and 
good, the whole are sometimes removed to other parts of the farm ; 
but in this the farmer must always be governed by circumstances. 
Half the ashes being removed, the remainder is drilled with tur- 
nips and green crops on the land broken up, or spread over it 
before being ploughed. The crop of turnips, which must always 
succeed, is sometimes eaten off in the autumn, sometimes in the 
spring, and followed by wheat, barley, or oats. Those crops, 
according to the soil, are succeeded by vetches, beans, or other 
green crops, and then regular rotations commence, some of which 
are indicated in our Estimates, but, of course, subject to variations 
from soil, situation, and climate. This Is a general outline, merely 
indicative of what may be successfully practised. It has been 
thought an advantage — an idea not yet entirely banished — to 
break up land in autumn, to pare and burn, spread all the ashes, 
and plough and sow wheat ; but this has not always been attended 
with success ; and when paring and burning have not been resorted 
to, the wheat scarcely ever succeeds. The hollowness induced by 
sods and angular fibrous lumps, with undecomposed grass and 
roots, render the wheat plant more liable to be killed by frost, 
and more susceptible of the attacks of such insects and vermin as 
may have escaped destruction by burning, than when a complete 
disintegration of the toughly matted sods has been effected, and 
the fibrous lumps pulverized by the treading of sheep in consum- 
ing the previous green crops. The plan of sowing wheat without 
the intervention of a green crop is uncertain in its results, and will 
