548 
SCOURING LANDS OF CENTRAL SOMERSET. 
during the drier summer months, when the young herbage 
grows very luxuriantly. 
7. The immature condition in which the herbage on scour¬ 
ing land is usually consumed, is principally caused by the 
peculiar character and relation of the subsoil to the surface- 
soil of scouring pastures. 
8. No positive evidence exists, showing that the complaint 
is due to a particular species of herb. 
A clear recognition of the causes which produce certain 
evils generally leads to some cure, or to means which are 
calculated to mitigate what cannot be cured. This report 
would not be complete if no allusion were made to the means 
at our command, either to cure scouring land or to mitigate 
the complaint to which cattle are subject on certain pastures. 
But as the report has become already more bulky than I in¬ 
tended to make it, the briefest allusions to this matter must 
suffice. I would therefore observe— 
1. It is highly advisable to cut off the supply of hard lias- 
springs and to provide cattle with soft drinking water. 
2. Rain-water tanks, for the supply of soft water, should 
be constructed in localities where cattle are obliged to drink 
hard waters that rise in the lias-clay. 
3. In some, though I fear exceptional cases, more efficient 
drainage will mitigate the evil. 
4. It is desirable to keep cattle from scouring pastures in 
those months of the year when the young herbage appears 
very luxuriant. 
5. The haymaking season on scouring pastures should be 
delayed as long as is possible in practice, in order to give the 
herbage a better chance of acquiring maturity. 
6. There are, however, many scouring pastures on which 
neither drainage, nor any other available means will have any 
material effect in bringing the herbage to an earlier and better 
state of maturity; and as the unripe condition of the herbage 
is by far the most common proximate cause of the evil, the 
best thing perhaps that can be done with such pastures is to 
plough them up. 
[Note. — I am of opinion, from what I have tried and 
observed on the “ tart ” lands at Pylle, where, I regret, the 
Professor has not made an inspection, that the plough is the 
true remedy, and all “tart” lands should be converted into 
arable lands. The clover-hay, the pasture on the clover-ley, 
and the roots fed by sheep on such land have no scouring 
properties; and, after a fair trial of some bad scouring lands, 
I have advised my tenant to break up and cultivate several 
scouring fields, which will, as I believe, be profitable instead 
of noxious land.-^-PoRTMAN.] 
