Laying down Land to Grass. 
437 
circumstance proved most favourable ; the grasses not only 
grew vigorously, but the dying out about the third or fourth year 
— so invariably the case with new pastures — was far less observ- 
able. The only reason to account for the superiority of this 
field over a piece adjoining, laid down after a dead fallow of 
one year, was that the two years' rest had so restored the con- 
dition of the soil that the grasses found all the nourishment in 
it they requii-ed. To this method of treatment I shall again 
have occasion to refer. 
Sixteen years ago I acquired, by exchange with a neighbour, 
a small field of 7 acres which was in sainfoin when it came 
into my possession. This field, being a short distance from my 
house and immediately in sight, I postponed, year after year, 
ploughing up and sowing down in grass. As the sainfoin 
began to die out, indigenous grasses began to make their appear- 
ance ; I determined, therefore, not to carry out my intention of 
ploughing it up, but to try the effect of sowing renovating grasses, 
and manuring the field tolerably often. The result of this course 
was that I obtained a very fair piece of pasture, which at the 
j present time is not at all inferior to some in close proximity 
I sown down nearly twenty years ago with a corn-crop. 
Last year I planted another field intended for permanent 
I pasture with sainfoin. I adopted this course, instead of a two- 
I years' dead fallow, out of deference to the wishes of my bailiff, 
: who reminded me that he was expected to make the farm pay, 
but how, he asked, was he to do it with so much land being 
[ laid down if he had to wait three years for a crop ? For the 
1 same cogent reasoning, four years ago I sowed a 16-acre field 
j with lucerne, upon which, two years afterwards, I sowed per- 
! manent grass-seeds. Mr. Martin J. Sutton, in his work upon 
I ' Permanent Pastures,' has expressed an unfavourable opinion of 
I mowing grasses in lucerne ; notwithstanding this adverse opinion, 
I from the beautiful carpet of green my field presents this spring 
I I have every reason so far to be satisfied with the experiment. 
I Hitherto I have dwelt upon the different systems pursued ; I 
now proceed to make a few general observations upon the sowing 
and subsequent management of newly sown pastures. As already 
intimated, I greatly prefer sowing down without a corn-crop : 
I on poor clay soils the grasses require for their support the 
manurial elements which a crop of corn takes out of the land. 
! In cases where the land has been exhausted or brought into low 
; condition, a two-years' dead fallow will be found the cheapest 
I way of restoring fertility, and bringing it into a condition to 
sustain the grasses through the critical years already 'alluded to. 
It is often asserted that the practice of sowing down with a 
corn-crop is attended Avith a twofold advantage, viz. the young 
