186 
On Breaking up Grass La)ids. 
be discarded by time and experience. The farmer, by merely 
feeling his way in this matter, has been led to adopt that plan 
which he has found best, without adhering to any uniform method ; 
and hence may have arisen variations in the modes of breaking up 
land, which become sanctioned under the name of local pecu- 
liarities; and the methods I am just about to describe may possi- 
bly possess something savouring of local peculiarity, and as such 
not applicable to all situations and climates ; but I can see nothing 
to prevent some or other of them from being applicable to lands 
in all parts of England. The methods for breaking up grass land 
have not yet settled down into one general principle : I therefore 
only give the ])ractices that have occurred under my own observa- 
tion ; and for the purpose of confirming those observations I have 
taxed the kindness of my neighbours, and will concisely describe 
their most recent practice, with its successes and failures. 
The methods adopted by some of them assume the character of 
experiments, and are so applicable that one might suppose them 
to have been undertaken ex])ressly to elucidate the present sub- 
ject. The fact being otherwise will probably render them more 
valuable, as they come forth divested of everything in the nature 
of bias ; and the persons themselves are ignorant of the purpose 
for which the information was required ; and, besides, I myself 
watched the proceedings of many with more than common 
interest. 
Case 1. 
A very good and well-known farmer broke up a large field of jiashire in 1S44, and 
without j)reviously paring and burning, ploughed and sowed with wheat. The 
land is situated on a level, and not injured liy wet. The soil is a moderately 
light loam of 7 inches in dejitti on gravel, which rests on a subsoil of clay several 
feet from the surface. The wheat failed. There were thin patches here and there, 
with a very fine ear, and on tlie rest of the land nothing but weeds. 
Case 2. 
This experiment was made in 1845. The land waa covered with a very thick grassy 
turf, which would liave been very difficult to reduce without burning. Tiiis piece 
Wiis inten(lp<l to be planted with trees. It was jiared and burned early in the 
s])ring, which produced a large quantity of ashes. They were spread regularly 
all over the land, and tiicn oafs were sown and plouglied in witli a thin furrow. 
The oals were an excellent crop, at least 7 quarters to the acre. This was on poor 
land, worth about l'2.i. ])er acre, not move, and not drained. Tlie great abundance 
of ashes olVered a good opportunity for assistance being rendered toother lands, but 
in this case it was impracticable for want of otlier lands to take them to. 
Cask 3. 
Tliis farmer, in 18 I1, broke u)i a ])iece of land, a sandy loam of tolerable depth, with 
a stratum of gravel under, on a sulisoil of Oxford clay. This land in jiasture pro- 
duced a very scanty lierbage, and was grazed with young slock, ami scarcely 
worth 20«. per acre. He jiared and binned, and ))loughed and sowtd turnips, and 
bush-liarrowed them in, the turf being of a looser texture than is often met with, 
but tliis operation did Utile more than cover the seed. He iiad a very fijie crop, 
wliicli was eaten oil' with sheeii, and in autumn the land was sown with wheat, of 
