particularly the comparative dryness of the win- 
ter; and a good deal likewise on the other re- 
sources of the farm for the supply of food to stock. 
Yet a good farmer will be chary about damaging 
the young grass by too advanced pasturing in 
spring; he will take care to prevent the grass- 
roots of his meadow from destruction by tearing 
and deep treading ; and for these reasons, as well 
-as for others—if not urged by some unusual con- 
currence of circumstances—he will have all his 
aftergrass fed off clean against the first or second 
stage of winter, and will possess a sufficient store 
of hay, straw, mangel-wurzel, carrots, turnips, 
and other storeable provender for the entire feed- 
ing of his stock during the middle and last stages 
of winter, and for their partial feeding from the 
beginning of spring till the month of May. 
A peculiar treatment of meadows, called fog- 
| ging, was ascertained to prevail in the latter half 
of the last century in South Wales, and was in- 
troduced to English husbandry, and recom- 
mended, by the well-known Arthur Young. This 
treatment—to speak paradoxically —converted 
the whole yearly produce of the meadows into 
aftergrass; for it consisted in shutting up the 
meadows from all stock early in May, and keep- 
ing them completely untouched by scythe or 
beast till November or December, and then mak- 
ing them the feeding-ground of the whole stock 
of the farm till next May. “Many years ago,” 
says Mr. Young, “I knew a Suffolk clergyman 
who was in the regular habit of this singular 
practice, and spoke of it as a most profitable one. 
I have tried it thrice, and with success; it thick- 
ens herhage greatly, and yields far more valuable 
winter and spring food than any person would 
expect who never tried it.” This method, how- 
ever, as may be seen at a glance, can be profit- 
able or even practicable only on very dry firm 
land ; and hence, it existed in South Wales only 
upon upland pastures, and was tested by Mr. 
Young upon the sandy and semi-arid grounds of 
Norfolk. 
Another practice is, after cutting down and 
removing the hay crop of meadows, to keep the 
aftergrass untouched by either beast or scythe 
throughout the autumn and the winter, and to 
employ it for the spring feeding of sheep. This 
practice, we believe, is unknown in Scotland or 
the north of England, and seems to us at once 
wasteful, slovenly, and not over healthy ; yet it 
has been recommended by such eminent men as 
Young and Marshall and Dr. Wilkinson, and is 
asserted by many to provide the cheapest spring 
food for sheep in general, and a better food than 
turnips, cabbages, or any other kind whatever 
for ewes and lambs. Dr. Wilkinson says, “This 
food with him (the aftergrass kept intact till 
spring) afforded a more nutritive and healthful 
quality of milk from the ewes to their tender 
. lambs than turnips even in their best state.” 
Mr. Marshall says that, as a certain and whole- 
some provision for ewes and lambs in early spring, 
nn EE Er nISEIENUISSENSnIRE EIEN 
AFTERGRASS. 
the preserved aftergrass may be depended on as_ 
“the sheet-anchor, in preference to turnips, cab- 
bages, or any other species whatever of what is 
termed spring-food.” And Mr. Young says, “Ifa 
field of this kept aftergrass be seen at any distance, 
it appears most unpromising, being of the colour 
of very bad hay ; but enter it, and turn aside this 
covering with your hands, and the young green 
growth is found five or six inches high, nursed 
up by the shelter and warmth of the autumnal 
growth. I have often shown this to persons on 
my own farm, to their great surprise. The sheep 
eat both together ; and it is found to agree with 
them remarkably, being, as it were, hay and 
grass in the same mouthful. I do not conceive 
that it is possible to keep a full stock of sheep so 
cheaply in April by any other method as by this.” 
Our objections to the practice—subject however | 
to such slight modifications from peculiar cir- 
cumstances as probably account for the recom- 
mendations of these eminent agriculturists—are | 
that the grasses matured in autumn are, in a 
great measure, wasted,—that the remains of 
these grasses, in the form of what Mr. Young 
most inappropriately terms “hay,” are half-rotted 
by the moistures of winter, and cannot be whole- 
some food,—that some of the spring grasses are 
prematurely bitten down, and probably damaged, | 
—and that the whole of the lands are liable to a 
choking moisture about the roots of their plants, 
and will be found more or less overrun by slugs 
and insects. Some allowance, and possibly an 
ample one, must be made for the dry climate, 
the arenaceous soils, and the peculiar grasses 
which have been concerned in the successful in- 
stances of kept aftergrass; but on the usually | 
moist winter-grounds of Scotland and the north | 
of England, and with the ordinary mixtures of | 
pasture-grasses, whether spontaneous or sown, 
we should expect every farmer who might try 
this practice to find it at once dear, dirty, and 
unwholesome. A little confusion exists as to the _ 
proper name for kept aftergrass, Mr. Young call- 
ing it rowen and the Rev. Mr. Rham calling it | 
fog,— while the former name is more commonly | 
applied to the cut autumn crop, and the latter to | 
the kept growing grass of the whole year for the 
spring feeding of the entire stock of the farm. 
In the northern districts of England, the after- | 
grass is frequently kept untouched till November 
or even a later period, and is then used for the 
fattening of stock for the shambles, or for the 
pasturage of cows in order to the manufacture of 
cheese of superior quality. But this practice, as 
already hinted, occasions, in almost every in- 
stance, an extensive destruction of the grass- 
plants of meadows ; and it also causes the neglect 
or loss of the lower growth of the grasses which 
cannot be bitten by cows, but might be fully 
available for sheep. The name eddish is applied 
to the aftergrass treated according to this prae 
tice; and—as another instance of the looseness 
of agricultural nomenclature—the same name is 
