Laying  I^and  down  to  Pasture. 
319 
{l>)  Field  297  ( Washhrook  Wan'en). — This  field  was  never 
as  good  as  the  foregoing  one,  and,  because  of  its  situation,  was 
ploughed  up  in  1903  and  sown  with  barley  for  the  game.  So 
it  may  be  considered  as  given  up. 
(c)  Field  322. — This  has  always  been  grazed.  A capital 
“ take  ” of  grasses  was  obtained  and  the  pasture  has  been  very 
useful.  There  is  a good  bottom  of  clover  and  yarrow,  and  the 
other  grasses  sown  have  persisted. 
3.  Hatfield  Peverel  {Essex). — This  is  land  on  the  London 
Clay.  The  field  was  first  mole-ploughed  and  then  laid  down  in 
April,  1897,  with  the  following  mixture  per  acre  : 5 lb.  Plileum 
pratense,  2 lb.  Poa  trivialis,  6 lb.  Dactylis  glomei^ata,  5 lb. 
Festuca  jrratensis,  2 lb.  Alopecurus  prateusis,  3 lb.  TrifoUunt 
repens,  ^ lb.  Achillea  Millefolium — nearly  nineteen  million 
seeds,  at  a cost  of  21.s.  per  acre.  A dressing  of  farmyard 
manure  was  given  in  1898,  but  since  then  nothing,  and  the 
field  has  been  continuously  grazed  by  milking  cows.  The 
seeds  sown  still  hold  possession  of  the  land,  but  the  plants  are 
starved  and  small,  and  daisies  and  dandelion  have  come  in  very 
much  on  the  blank  spaces.  The  land  clearly  wants  the  help  of 
manure,  and  it  is  probable  that  a dressing  of  basic  slag  would 
be  of  much  advantage. 
Conclusions. 
From  these  different  experiments  it  would  seem  that  the 
mixture  of  grasses  sown  has  been  in  each  case  quite  a satis- 
factory one,  and,  judging  from  the  previous  pasture,  a great 
improvement  on  the  original  laying  tlown.  But  it  is  equally 
certain  that  where,  as  on  the  heavy  clay  land  in  Essex,  there  is 
a stiff  impenetrable  soil  to  work  on,  the  addition  of  manure  is 
necessary  in  order  jiroperly  to  feed  the  plant.  The  success  of 
the  laying  down  on  a poor  sandy  land  like  that  at  Ampthill 
is  proof,  however,  that  such  grass  land  coiild  be  much  improved 
by  laying  it  down  with  a proper  mixture  of  grasses  and  clovers, 
as  was  here  used. 
B. — Improvement  op  Old  Pasture. 
County  Locality  Formation 
4.  Cheshire  Tatton  Park  New  red  sandstone 
This  was  old  park  land ; the  pasture  was  composed  of  little 
more  than  common  bent  grass  or  twitch  {Agrostis  vulgaris), 
aiul  it  has  always  been  grazed.  There  is  now  a most  remarkable 
improvement  shown  here  as  the  result  of  using  lime.  Four 
tons  of  lime  per  acre  were  applied  in  the  winter  of  1895,  and 
the  dressing  has  not  been  since  repeated.  Not  only  has  the 
poor  grass  been  made  more  palatable  to  stock,  but  an  entire 
change  has  been  effected  in  the  spongy  mass  formed  by  the 
ci'eeping  stems  of  the  twitch  grass.  At  first  there  was,  and 
still  is  on  the  unmanured  plot,  a thick  matting  of  these  stems. 
