JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Marcia 3, 1883. ] 
181 
merely to introduce various practical and theoretical statements 
which may be considered supplementary to former contributions. 
We are led into this in consequence of the increasing interest in 
the subject taken by landed proprietors. Nothing has ever been 
written of more importance in farming than the papers lately 
given by Mr. Lawes in the Agricultural Gazette , which make 
us acquainted with various theoretical and practical points. It 
is, however, a very wide subject, and on which much diversity of 
opinion necessarily prevails. 
In reference to the manuring of old permanent pastures, and 
those recently laid down or intended to be laid into permanent 
grass land, we should first understand the difference in the fer¬ 
tility of old pastures and that recently formed out of arable land. 
The remarks of Mr. Lawes are not only interesting but very in¬ 
structive, and upon which we are induced to place the greatest 
reliance by reason of his experience and long-continued experi¬ 
ments carried out at Rothampstead with intelligence and perse¬ 
verance without regard to the outlay of capital. Taking all the 
matters into consideration Mr. Lawes stands alone in his posi¬ 
tion in this country in his ability to carry out anything by way of 
experiment which may be necessary for furnishing evidence for 
the farmer’s guidance, and upon which he may rely with unlimited 
confidence. Mr. Lawes states, “ Practical knowledge has decided 
that when a field of permanent pasture and one of arable land lie 
adjoining, the former contains a larger store of fertility than the 
latter. Practice has equally decided the point that, by the con¬ 
version of pasture into arable land, these stores of fertility can be 
made available for the production of corn, roots, &c.; and further, 
on the other hand, that the converse process of forming a perma¬ 
nent pasture from an arable soil is a work of time : but the dura¬ 
tion of the period before that newly laid down will equal the old 
pasture in character must depend altogether upon the nature of 
the soil and climate of the locality, and the treatment which the 
land has received. To these facts I propose to add some further 
information which may be of service at the present time, when 
the conversion of arable land into pasture is exciting so much 
interest. At Rothampstead—in addition to the permanent pas¬ 
ture in the park, which has probably existed as such for centuries, 
though its exact age is unknown—I have from time to time laid 
down land to grass at intervals commencing from forty years ago 
up to 1879. I am therefore in a position to furnish considerable 
evidence on the subject, so far as my own land is concerned. The 
old pasture under experiment in the park, after the removal of 
twenty crops of unmanured hay, would probably contain more 
nitrogen in the first 9 inches from the surface than any of the 
land laid down by me, and nearly twice as much as would be 
found in the arable land. I may, however, possibly be able to 
convey the impression which I wish to make by an illustration. 
How great is the accumulation of manure ingredients in the soil 
in some cases we may gather from an experiment at Rothamp¬ 
stead, where, upon a plot of old garden soil, the removal of two 
or three crops of red Clover annually for a quarter of a century, 
without any fresh application of manure, has not yet exhausted 
the stock already existing in the soil. Again, upon part of the 
permanent Wheat field 14 tons of dung per acre have been applied 
annually since 1844. This would amount in round numbers to 
500 tons, containing about 7000 lbs. of nitrogen, equal to about 
8500 lbs. of ammonia. Of this the crop may have removed one- 
fourth, a portion has been lost, and another portion has become 
part of the capital stock of fertility in the soil. So large is this 
capital and so tenaciously is it held that probably a century of 
unmanured cropping would not entirely exhaust it, and yet it is 
probable that the nitrogen accumulated in the first 9 inches of 
the soil is less than that contained in the first 9 inches of the 
unmanured pasture. Your correspondent, in his very interesting 
history of the Rothampstead grass experiments, refers to the fact 
that I have to produce 8 or 10 tons of grass roots in every acre of 
new pasture. In addition to this I may here add that I shall 
further have to accumulate in the soil about a ton of nitrogen 
before my new pasture will be equal to the old.” 
We desire to call the attention of the home farmer to the way 
in which the facts above stated show the necessity of treating 
differently the old and new pastures. In the old pastures, if fed 
off by cattle eating decorticated cotton cake, little else would be 
required ; whereas the new pasture should not only have the 
cotton cake consumed upon it annually, but liberal dressings of 
yard dung and ammoniacal manures like guano and nitrate of 
soda, as well as manures containing the phosphates, should be 
applied yearly. This should be done without reference to the 
requirements of the grasses for the time present, but enough to be 
continually acting upon the roots of the grasses until they attain 
to almost a solid body like roots of good old pasture ; or, in other 
words, making such an investment on the land that the capital or 
stock of manure should be equal to the formation of a full plant 
of stock grass roots, in order to its permanent establishment. In 
previous articles relating to laying down and maintaining perma¬ 
nent pasture we have not stated the time which it would take to 
bring new pasture into a state when it shall be equal to the old, 
nor can it be stated as a question of time. What we have most 
strenuously contended for is a most liberal and abundant supply 
of manures, not only at the time of seeding but annually after¬ 
wards, so that the seeds when properly sown may afford a luxu¬ 
riant growth sufficient to make the pasturage worth the expenses 
of manures until it can be ranked with the old pastures in turf 
and production. This will depend upon a variety of circumstances 
other than manuring, such as the soil, climate, judicious feeding, 
mowing, and general management, also the growth and decay of 
the roots of the grasses. Our next notice of Mr. Lawes’ paper 
will comprise a quotation wherein he practically describes the 
herbage produced upon the best grazing lands of Leicestershire 
aud their value, from which we shall endeavour to draw certain 
important conclusions which may well direct us in the choice of 
seeds of grass, Clovers, &c., for laying down or renovating our 
new grass lands ; in fact, we have various comments to make 
upon the subject of great importance considering the present 
condition of agriculture. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—Tillage has been well nigh impossible during the 
greater portion of the month of February, and therefore compared 
with ordinary or average seasons this and seed time is very late even 
on the driest soils. The seeding of Barley as a second corn crop may 
be attended to, but should depend almost entirely upon the land 
being clean and free from couch grass. It is, however, not advisable 
to sow Barley after Wheat when the latter has been sown by once 
ploughing out of lea, unless an autumn fallow has been made, for on 
the loamy or mixed soils the land would be too heavy and close for 
the growth of Barley with success. In a season like the present 
spring culture could be done until the seed time, which cannot be 
delayed by cultivation without the risk of a late crop or the land 
becoming too dry for the seed to vegetate with regularity. We 
therefore advise that land be selected for early seeding with Barley 
after Wheat or other crops which had been prepared for by a fallow. 
Upon very light and dry soil Barley may be sown as soon as the 
land becomes dry on the surface—land where roots have been fed off 
by sheep. Upon loamy and mixed soils we would sooner sow drege, 
as it is much surer to yield a profitable return. There is one prepa¬ 
ration for Barley which is really a very good one upon ordinary 
soils, especially after such a frosty winter as we have experienced— 
namely, the land which had borne a crop of Mangolds last year ; it 
is, however, a common practice to sow Wheat after Mangolds as soon 
as the land is cleared of the crop. We prefer to plough-in the Man¬ 
gold leaves, and lay up the land as fallow for the winter months, 
after which no land upon the farm will be more likely to yield a full 
crop and malting sample of Barley if sown at the first fine weather 
which happens in the spring. Such land, too, will require but little 
labour; one scarifying will be sufficient before seeding, and prove a 
much better preparation than ploughing. Another advantage we 
have found that red Clover is likely to plant well after the Mangold 
crop, whether seeded in Barley or Wheat, especially if the land is not 
ploughed in spring, and the fine weather-beaten surface maintained 
and retained by the use of the scarifier or horse-hoe only, which 
makes the best seed bed the Clover can have. 
Hand Labour .—The work in the woodlands and hedgerows should 
now be nearly concluded in order that the men may be employed in 
work connected with the tillage, manuring, and seeding of the land. 
The plashing of hedges, banking, and ditching should now be com¬ 
pleted. The outlets of all draining work, whether in the pastures 
or arable land, should be attended to whilst the ditches are being 
scoured. Finding these outlets is often a matter of much uncertainty, 
especially upon those estates where the home farmer has no map of 
the draining or plans of reference to assist him, and it is at once 
shown the disadvantage of this when strangers and new labourers 
are employed in such work. In some meadows where draining has 
been done in peaty soil there will occasionally be collections in 
the tiles of a red ferruginous matter, which if allow-ed to collect 
undisturbed will become a hardened mass and entirely stop the 
drains. Upon such soils where we use iron rods with a swab at the 
end, so that when introduced into the tiles twice a year, in March 
and October, they may be scoured aud kept open, and as we have the 
iron rods made in certain lengths which can be screwed together we 
are enabled to scour and free the tiles for a considerable distance 
within the outlets. We recommend this system, otherwise these 
drains will require constant repairs by taking up portions and relay¬ 
ing, which proves very expensive, especially if no map of the draining 
is available. The crops of Swedish Turnips are nearly all so much 
injured by the frost that they will be of no use after another ten days 
or a fortnight, excepting the late-sown pieces, which are mostly 
sound and uninjured, being in full growth and vigour when the frost 
commenced. If allowed to remain undisturbed in the land and 
ploughed in, although they may be quite decayed, they will manure 
