AGRICULTURE, 
for some time to the plough, as no other 
method is equally useful to prepare for per- 
manently ameliorating its pasture. 
To prepare arable land for grass, it must 
be cleaned from weeds, and well manured, 
just in the same maimer as that which is re- 
quired for a crop of grain, Excepting upon 
stiff clays, the most eligible preparation for 
grass is a crop of turnips, consumed by cattle 
in the field : the ground being thus at once 
manured and cleaned. Where lands are 
broken up expressly for the purpose of im- 
proving the pasture, the turnips scarcely 
fail to' succeed, through the manure afforded 
so abundantly by the fresh turf; and the 
cattle deriving from the abundant crop con- 
sequent on this circumstance a plentiful 
food, are thus enabled the more extensively 
to improve the soil by dung. On clay land 
the soil should be very liberally manured in 
spring or autumn, it ought to be ploughed 
once in autumn, and three or four times more 
in summer, previously to the period of sow- 
ing the seeds, which should take place in Au- 
gust. As to the much agitated question of 
sowing grass seeds with or without a crop of 
corn, it may be observed, that it is impos- 
sible for lands intended for grass crops, or 
meadow, to possess too high a state of rich- 
ness, and that, after the soil is improved 
with a view to its permanent fertility ip 
grass, to weaken it hy a crop of corn appears 
little better than blind or infatuated counter- 
action. If, however, the practice be perse- 
vered in which has so generally been followed 
in this respect, barley should be the grain 
preferred, as springing up with a slight stalk, 
and not overshadowing and smothering the 
grass plants, and also as being the incum- 
brance to those plants more speedily re- 
moved than any other. 
Whether grass seeds be sown in August 
after a fallow, or with corn in spring, all 
trampling by horses or cattle should be ef- 
fectually prevented. Every thing therefore 
should be kept out from it both during 
autumn and winter. Not only is the tender 
soil, which is extremely susceptible of injury 
thus secured from it, but the pasturage in 
the spring is of proportionally more value 
for not having been eaten off in autumn, 
and affords a most valuable early bite for 
the ewes and lambs. 
The proper treatment of leys during the 
first year is to feed them with sheep, unless, 
after a crop of hay be taken from them, 
vast quantities of manure be spread over 
their surface. 
The chief food of cattle consisting of 
grasses, their importance is as obvious as it 
is great, and the distinguishing and select- 
ing them cannot be too fully attended to. 
By this care the best grasses, and in the 
greatest abundance that the land admits of, 
are secured; while, for want of this atten- 
tion, pastures are either filled with weeds, 
or bad and inappropriate grasses. The 
number of grasses fit, or at least necessary 
for the purposes of culture, is but small, 
scarcely exceeding half a score, and by the 
careful separation and sowing of the seeds 
of these, the husbandman would soon be 
enabled to accommodate the varieties of 
his soil, each with the herbage best adapted 
to it, the advantage of which would infinitely 
exceed the trouble necessary for its accom- 
plishment, Were a great variety of grain 
to be sown in the same inclosure, the ab- 
surdity would be universally ridiculed ; and 
scarcely less absurd and ridiculous is the 
common practice of indiscriminately sowing- 
grass seeds from the foul hay rack, including 
a mixture of almost every species of grass 
seeds and rubbish. 
The species of grass appropriated to any 
particular soil or application being deter- 
mined upon, its seeds cannot be sown too 
plentifully, and no economy less deserving 
the name can possibly exist than the being 
sparing of grass seeds. The seeds of grain 
may easily be sown too thickly ; but with 
respect to those of grass, it is scarcely ca- 
pable of occurring. The smaller the stem, 
the more acceptable it is to cattle; and 
when the seeds, particularly of some grasses, 
are thinly scattered, their stems tend, as it 
is called, to wood. 
The most valuable grass to be cut green 
for summer’s food is red clover, which also 
is an admirable preparation for wheat. To 
have it in perfection, the weeds must be 
cleared, and the land harrowed as finely 
as possible. The surface should also be 
smoothed with a slight roller. The seeds 
should likewise be well covered with earth, 
as should all small seeds, notwithstanding 
the common opinion to the contrary. From 
the middle of April to that of May is the 
proper season for sowing it. Although it 
will last three years if cut down green, the 
safest course is to let it stand but one. It 
is luxuriant upon a rich soil, whether of 
clay, loam, or gravel, and will grow even 
upon a moor. For a wet soil it is totally 
unfit. It may be sown with grain with less 
impropriety than perhaps any other grass, 
and particularly with flax. When a land, 
left unploughed, spontaneously produces 
this plant, the soil may decidedly be pro- 
nounced good. 
