hin clay soil, worth much more than the fee-simple of the land that produced it. He has frequently known land, both after rape and after naked fallow, in the same field; and invariably the rapewheat was better in every respect than that after naked fallow.'-Husbandry of Scotland, vol. ii. appendix, p. 45. OF THE CULTURE OF GRASSES. The end of August or the beginning of September is the best season for sowing grass-seeds, as there is time for the roots of the young plants to fix themselves before the sharp frosts set in. Moist weather is best for sowing; the earth being then warm, the seeds vegetate immediately; but if this season proves unfavorable, they will do very well in the middle of March. Never sow on foul land; plough it well, and clear it from the roots of couch-grass, rest-harrow, fern, broom, and all other noxious weeds. If these are suffered to remain they will soon destroy the young grass. Rake these up in heaps, burn them on the land, and spread the ashes as a manure. Repeat the ploughings and harrowings in dry weather. If the soil be clayey and wet make some drains to carry off the water. Before sowing lay the land as level as possible. If the grass seeds are clean, three bushels will be sufficient per acre. When sown, harrow it in gently, and roll it in with a wooden roller. When it comes up, fill up all the bare spots with fresh seed, which, if rolled to fix it, will soon come up and overtake the rest. In Norfolk they sow clover with their grasses, particularly with ryegrass; but this should not be done except when the land is designed for grass only three or four years, because neither of these kinds will last long in the lands. Where you intend it for a continuance it is better to mix only small white Dutch clover, or marl grass with other grass seed, and not above eight pounds to an acre. These are abiding plants, spread close on the surface, and make the sweetest feeding for cattle. In spring root up thistles, hemlock, or any large weeds that appear. The doing this while the ground is soft enough to permit drawing by the roots, and before they seed, will save a vast deal of trouble afterwards. A common method of laying down fields to grass is extremely injudicious. Some sow barley with the grasses, which they suppose to be use ful in shading them, without considering how much the corn draws away the nourishment. Others take their seeds from a foul hay-rick; by which means, besides filling the land with rubbish and weeds, what they intend for dry soils may have come from moist, where it grew naturally, and vice versa. The consequence is that the ground, instead of being covered with a good thick sward, is filled with plants unnatural to it. The kinds of grass most eligible for pasture lands are, the annual meadow, creeping, and fine bent, the fox-tail, and crested dog's tail, the poas, the fescues, the vernal, oat-grass, and the rye-grass. We do not, however, approve of sowing all these kinds together; for besides their ripening at different times, by which we can never cut them all in perfection and full vigor, no cattle are fond of all anke. Horses will scarcely eat hay which oxen and cows will thrive upon; sheep are particularly fond of some kinds, and refuse others. The darnel-grass, if not cut before several of the other kinds are ripe, becomes so hard and wiry in the stalks, that few cattle eat it. Such as wish for a particular account of the above-mentioned grasses, will be amply gratified in consulting Mr. Stillingfleet on this subject, who has treated it with great judgment and accuracy. The substance of his observations is given in our article GRASS. The grasses commonly sown for pasture, for hay, or to be cut green for cattle, are red clover, white clover, yellow clover, rye-grass, narrowleaved plantain called ribwort, saintfoin and lucerne. Red clover is of all the most proper to be cut green for summer food. It is a biennial plant when suffered to perfect its seed; but, when cut green, it will last three years, and in a dry soil longer. At the same time the safest course is to let it stand but a single year; if the second year's crop happen to be scanty, it proves, like a bad crop of pease, a great encourager of weeds by the shelter it affords them. Here, as in all other crops, the goodness of seed is of importance. Choose plump seed of a purple color, because it takes on that color when ripe. It is red when hurt in the drying, and of a faint color when unripe. Red clover is luxuriant upon a rich soil, whether clay, loam, or gravel it will grow even upon a moor, when properly cultivated. A wet soil is its only bane. To have red clover in perfection, weeds must be extirpated, and stones taken off. The mould ought to be made as fine as a harrowing can make it; and the surface smoothed with a light roller. This gives an opportunity for distributing the seed evenly; which must be covered by a small harrow with teeth not larger than that of a garden rake. In harrowing, the man should walk behind with a rope in his hand fixed to the back part of the harrow, ready to disentangle it from stones, clods, turnip or cabbage roots, which would trail the seed, and displace it. No precise depth is necessary for the seed of red clover. It will grow vigorously from two inches deep, and it will grow when barely covered. Half an inch may be reckoned the most advantageous position in a clay soil, a whole inch in what is light or loose. It is a vulgar error that small seed ought to be sparingly. covered. Misled by it, farmers cover their clover seed with a bushy branch of thorn, which not only covers it unequally, but leaves part on the surface to wither in the air. The proper season for sowing red clover is from the middle of April to the middle of May. It wil spring from the first of March to the end of Agust; but such liberty ought not to be taken. That There cannot be a greater blunder in husbandry than to be sparing of seed. Some writers talk of sowing an acre with four pounds. quantity of seed, say they, will fill an acre with plants as thick as they ought to stand. This rule may be admitted as to grain, but will not answer with respect to grass. Grass seed cannot be sown too thick: the plants shelter one another; they retain all the dew; and they must push for ward, having no room laterally. Observe the place where a sack of pease, or of other grain, has been set down for sowing: the seed dropped there accidentally grows more quickly than in the rest of the field sown thin out of hand. A young plant of clover, or of sainfoin, according to Tull, may be raised to a great size where it has room; but the field will not produce half the quantity. When red clover is sown for cutting green, there ought not to be less than twenty-four pounds to an acre. A field of clover is seldom too thick; the smaller the stem, the more acceptable it is to cattle. It is often too thin; and when so the stem tends to wood. Red clover is commonly sown with grain; and the most proper grain is flax. The soil must be highly cultivated for flax as well as for red clover. The proper season for sowing is the same for both; the leaves of flax, being very small, admit of free circulation of air; and flax being an early crop is removed so early as to give the clover time for growing. In a rich soil it has grown so fast as to afford a good cutting that very year. Next to flax, barley is the best companion to clover. The soil must be loose and free for barley; as well as for clover: the season for sowing is the same; and the clover is well established in the ground before it is overtopped by the barley. At the same time, barley commonly is sooner cut than either oats or wheat. When clover is sown in spring upon wheat, the soil, which has lain five or six months without being stirred, is an improper bed for it; and the wheat, being in the vigor of growth, overtops it from the beginning. It cannot be sown along with oats, because of the hazard of frost; and when sown as usual among the oats three inches high, it is overtopped, and never enjoys free air till the oats be cut. Where oats are sown upon the winter furrow, the soil is rendered as hard as when under wheat. Red clover is sometimes sown by itself without other grain: but this method, besides losing a crop, is not salutary; because clover in its infant state requires shelter. As to the quantity of grain proper to be sown with clover, in a rich soil well pulverised, a peck of barley on an English acre is all that ought to be ventured; but there is not so much soil in Scotland so rich. Two Linlithgow firlots make the proper quantity for an acre that produces six bolls of barley; half a firlot for what produces nine bolls. To some, so small a quantity may appear ridiculous. But a rich soil in good order, will, from a single seed of barley, produce twenty or thirty vigorous stems. The culture of white clover, yellow clover, ribwort, and rye-grass, is the same in general with that of red clover. Yellow clover, ribwort, and rye-grass, are all early plants, blooming in the end of April or beginning of May. The two latter are evergreens, and therefore excellent for winter pasture. Rye-grass is less hurt by frost than any of the clovers, and will thrive in a moister soil nor is it much affected by drought. rich soil it grows four feet high. These grasses are generally sown with red clover for producing a plentiful crop. The proportion of seed is arbitrary; and there is little danger of too much. When rye-grass is sown for procuring seed, five In a firlots wheat measure may be sown on an acre; and, for procuring seed of rib-wort, forty pounds may be sown. The roots of rye-grass spread horizontally: they bind the soil by their number; and, though small, are yet so vigorous as to thrive in hard soil. Red clover has a large tap-root, which cannot penetrate any soil but what is open and free; and the largeness of the root makes the soil still more open and free. Rye-grass, once a great favorite, appears to be discarded in most parts of Britain. The common practice has been to sow it with red clover, and to cut them promiscuously in the beginning of June for green food, and a little later for hay. This indeed is the proper season for cutting red clover, because it then begins to flower; but, as the seed of the rye-grass is then approaching to maturity, its growth is stopped for that year, as much as of oats or barley cut after the seed is ripe. Oats or barley cut green before the seed forms, will afford two other cuttings; which is the case of ryegrass, of yellow clover, and of ribwort. By such management, all the profit will be drawn that these plants can afford. When red clover is intended for seed, the ground ought to be cleared of weeds, as the seed cannot otherwise be preserved pure: what seeds escape the plough ought to be taken out by the hand. In England, when a crop of seed is intended, the clover is always first cut for hay. This practice will not answer in Scotland, as the seed would often be too late for ripening. It would do better to eat the clover by sheep till the middle of May, which would allow the seed to ripen. The seed is ripe when, upon rubbing it between the hands, it parts readily from the husk. Then apply the scythe, spread the crop thin, and turn it carefully. When perfectly dry, take the first hot day for threshing it on boards covered with a coarse sheet. Another way, less subject to risk, is to stack the dry hay, and to thresh it in the end of April. After the first threshing, expose the husks to the sun; and thresh them till no seed remain. Nothing is more efficacious than a hot day to make the husk part with its seed; in which view it may be exposed to the sun by parcels, in an hour or two before the flail is applied. White clover, intended for seed, is managed in the same manner. No plant ought to be mixed with rye-grass that is intended for seed. In Scotland much rye-grass seed is hurt by transgressing that rule. The seed is ripe when it parts easily with the husk. The yellowness or the stem is another indication of its ripeness; in which particular it resembles oats, barley, and other culmiferous plants. The best manner to manage a crop of rye-grass, for seed, is to bind it loosely in small sheaves, widening them at the bottom to make them stand erect; as is done with oats in moist weather. In that state they may stand till sufficiently dry for threshing. They thus dry more quickly, and are less hurt by rain, than by close binding and putting the sheaves in shocks like corn. The worst way of all is to spread the rye-grass on the moist ground; for it makes the seed malten. The sheaves, when sufficiently dry, are carried in close carts to where they are to be threshed on a board, as mentioned above for clover. Pat the straw in a rick when 100 stone or so are threshed. Carry the threshing board to the place where another rick is intended; and so on till the whole seed is threshed, and the straw ricked. There is necessity for close carts to save the seed which is apt to drop out in a hot day; and a hot day ought always to be chosen for threshing. Carry the seed in sacks to the granary or barn, to be separated from the busks by a fanner. Spread the seed thin upon a timber floor, and turn it once or twice a-day till perfectly dry. If suffered to take a heat, it is useless for seed. The writers on agriculture reckon sainfoin preferable to clover in many respects. they say that it produces a larger crop; that it does not hurt cattle when eaten green; that it makes better hay; that it continues four times longer in the ground; and that it will grow on land that will bear no other crop. Sainfoin has a very long tap-root, which is able to pierce very hard earth. The roots grow very large; and the larger they are, they penetrate to the greater depth; and hence this grass, when it thrives well, receives a great part of its nourishment from below the staple of the soil: of course, a deep dry soil is best for sainfoin. When plants draw their nourishment from that part of the soil that is near the surface, it is not of much consequence whether their number be great or small. But the case is very different when the plants receive their food. not only near, but also deep below the surface. Besides, plants that shoot their roots deep are of ten supplied with moisture, when those near the surface are parched with drought. To render the plants of sainfoin vigorous, they must be sown thin. The best method of doing this is by a drill; because, when sown in this manner, not only the weeds, but also the supernumerary plants, can easily be removed. It is several years before sainfoin comes to its full strength; and the number of plants sufficient to stock a field, while in this imperfect state, will make but a poor crop for the first year or two. It is therefore necessary that it be sown in such a manner as to make it easy to take up plants in such numbers, and in such order, as always to leave in the field the proper number in their proper places. This can only be done with propriety by sowing the plants in rows by a drill. Supposing a field to be drilled in rows at ten inches distance, the partitions may be hand-hoed, and the rows dressed in such a manner as to leave a proper number of plants. In this situation the field may remain two years; then one-fourth of the rows may be taken out in pairs, in such a manner as to make the beds of fifty inches, with six rows in each, and intervals of thirty inches, which may be ploughed. Next year another fourth of the rows may be taken out in the same manner, so as to leave double rows, with partitions of ten inches, and intervals of thirty; all of which may be hoed at once or alternately, as may be most convenient. The great quantity of this grass which the writers on this subject assure us may be raised upon an acre, and the excellency and great value of the hay made of it, should induce farmers to make a complete trial of it. The plants taken up from a field of sainfoin may be set in another field; and if the transplanting of the grass succeeds as well as the transplanting of lucerne has done with Mr. Lunin de Chateauvieux, the trouble and expense will be sufficiently recompensed by the largeness of the crops. In transplanting, it is necessary to cut off great part of the long tap-root: this will prevent it from striking very deep into the soil, and make it push out large roots in a sloping direction from the cut end of the tap-root. Sainfoin managed in this manner will thrive even on shallow land that has a wet bottom, provided it be not overstocked with plants. Whoever inclines to try the culture of this grass in Scotland, should take great pains in preparing the land, and making it as free from weeds as possible. In England, as the roots strike deep in that chalky soil, this plant is not liable to be so much injured by drought as other grasses are, whose fibres lie horizontally, and lie near the surface. The quantity of hay produced is greater and better in quality than any other. But there is one advantage attending this grass, which renders it superior to any other; viz. that it affords excellent feeding for milch cows. The prodigious increase of milk which it makes is astonishing, being nearly double that produced by any other green food. The milk is also better, and yields more cream than any other ; and the butter procured from it is much better colored and flavored. The following remarks by an English farmer are made from much experience and observation. Sainfoin is much cultivated in those parts where the soil is of a chalky kind. It will always succeed well where the roots run deep; the worst soil of all for it is where there is a bed of colu wet clay, which the tender fibres cannot penetrate. It will make a greater increase of produce, by at least thirty times, than common grass or turf on poor land. Where it meets with chalk or stone, it will extend its roots through the cracks and chinks to a very great depth, in search of nourishment. The dryness is of more cousequence than the richness of land for sainfoin; although land that is both dry and rich will always produce the largest crops. It is very commonly sown broad-cast; but it answers best in drills, especially if the land be made fine by repeated ploughing, rolling, and harrowing. Much de pends on the depth which this seed is sown. If it be buried more than an inch deep, it will seldom grow; and, if left uncovered, it will push out its roots above ground, and these will be killed by the air. March and the beginning of April are the best seasons for sowing it, as the severity of winter and the drought of summer are equally unfavorable to the young plants. A bushel of seed sown broad-cast, or half that quan tity in drills, if good, is sufficient for an acre. The drill should be thirty inches apart, to admit of horse-hoeing between them. Much depends on the goodness of the seed, which may however, be best judged of by the following marks : The husk being of a bright color, the kernel plump, of a gray or bluish color without, and, if cut across, greenish and fresh withinside; if it be thin and furrowed, and of a yellowish cast, it will seldom grow. When the plants stand single, and have room to spread, they produce the greatest quantity of herbage, and the seed ripens best. But farmers in general plant them so close that they choke and impoverish each other, and often die in a few years. Single plants run deepest and draw most nourishment; they are also easiest kept free from weeds. A single plant will often produce half a pound of hay, when dry. On rich land this plant will yield two good crops in a year, with a moderate share of culture. A good crop must not be expected the first year; but, if the plaats stand not too thick, they will increase in size the second year prodigiously. No cattle should be turned on the field the first winter after the corn is off with which it was sown, as their feet would injure the young plants. Sheep should not come on the following summer, because they would bite off the crown of the plants, and prevent their shooting again. A small quantity of soa pers' ashes as a top-dressing will be of great service, if laid on the first winter. If the sainfoin be cut just before it comes into bloom, it is admirable food for horned cattle; and, if cut thus early, it will yield a second crop the same season. But, if it proves a wet season, it is better to let it stand till its bloom be perfected; for great care must be taken, in making it into hay, that the flowers do not drop off, as cows are very fond of them; and it requires more time than other hay in drying. Sainfoin is so excellent a fodder for horses, that they require no oats while they eat it, although they be worked hard all the time. Sheep will also be fattened with it faster than with any other food. If the whole season for cutting proves very rainy, it is better to let the crop stand for seed, as that will amply repay the loss of the hay; because it will not only fetch a good price, but a peck of it will go as far as a peck and a half of oats for horses. The best time of cutting the seeded sainfoin is when the greatest part of this seed is well filled, the first blowing ripe, and the last blowing beginning to open. For want of this care some people have lost most of their seed by letting it stand too ripe. Seeded sainfoin should always be cut in a morning or evening, when the dews render the stalks tender. If cut when the sun shines hot, much of the seed will fall out and be lost. An acre of very ordinary land, when improved by this grass, will maintain four cows very well from the 1st of April to the end of November; and afford, besides, a sufficient store of hay to make the greater part of their food the four months following. If the soil be tolerably good, a field of sainfoin will last from fifteen to twenty years in prime; but, at the end of seven or eight years, it will be necessary to lay on a moderate coat of well rotted dung; or, if the soil be very light and sandy, of marle. The future crops, and the duration of the plants in health and vigor, will thus be greatly increased and prolonged. Hence it will appear that, for poor land, there is nothing equal to this grass in point of advantage to the farmer. Clover will last only two years in perfection; and often, if the soil be cold and moist, nearly half the plants will rot, and bald patches be found in every part of the field the second year. Besides, from our frequent rains during September, many crops left for feeding are lost. But from the quantity and excellent quality of sainfoin, and its ripening earlier, and continuing in vigor so much longer, much risk and expense is avoided, and a large annual profit accrues to the farmer. The writers on agriculture, ancient as well as modern, bestow the highest encomiums upon lucerne as affording excellent hay, and producing very large crops. Lucerne remains at least ten or twelve years in the ground, and produces about eight tons of hay upon the Scots acre. There is but little of it cultivated in Scotland. However, it has been tried in several parts of that country; and it is found that, when the seed is good, it comes up very well, and stands the winter frost. But the chief thing which prevents this grass from being more used in Scotland is the difficulty of keeping the soil open and free from weeds. In a few years the surface becomes so hard, and the turf so strong, that it destroys the lucerne before the plants have arrived at their greatest perfection; so that lucerne can scarcely be cultivated with success there, unless some method be fallen upon of destroying the natural grass, and preventing the surface from becoming hard and impenetrable. This cannot be done effectually by any other means than horse-hoeing. This method was first proposed by Tull, and afterwards practised successfully by M. de Chateauvieux. That gentleman tried the sowing of lucerne both in rows upon the beds where it was intended to stand, and likewise the sowing it in a nursery, and afterwards transplanting it into the beds prepared for it. He prefers transplanting; because part of the tap-root is thus cut off, and the plant shoots out a number of lateral branches from the cut part of the root, which makes it spread its roots nearer the surface, and consequently renders it more easily cultivated; besides, this circumstance adapts it to a shallow soil, in which, if left in its natural state, it would not grow. This transplanting is attended with many advantages. The land may be prepared in summer for receiving the plants from the nursery in autumn; by which means the field must be in a much better situation than if the seed had been sown upon it in the spring. By transplanting, the rows can be made more regular, and the intended distances more exactly observed; and consequently the hoeing can be performed more perfectly, and with less expense. M. Chateauvieux likewise tried the lucerne in single beds three feet wide, with single rows; in beds three feet nine inches wide, with double rows; and in beds four feet three inches wide, with triple rows. The plants in the single rows were six inches asunder, and those in the double and triple rows were about eight or nine inches. In a course of three years he found that a single row produced more than a triple row of the same length. The plants of lucerne, when cultivated by transplantation, should be at least six inches asunder, to allow them room for extending their crowns. He further observes that the beds or ridges ought to be raised in the middle; that a small trench, two or three inches deep, should be drawn in the middle; and that the plants ought to be set in this trench, covered with earth up to the neck. He says that if the lucerne be sown in spring, and in a warm soil, it will be ready for transplanting in September; that, if the weather be too hot and dry, the transplanting should be delayed till October; and that, if the weather be unfavorable during both these months, this operation must be delayed till spring. He further directs that the plants should be carefully taken out of the nursery, so as not to damage the roots; that the roots be left only about six or seven inches long; that the green crops be cut off within about two inches of the crown; that they be put into water as soon as taken up, and remain till they are planted; and that they should be planted with a planting-stick, in the same manner as cabbages. He does not give particular directions as to the times of horse-hoeing; but only says, in general, that the intervals should be stirred once in the month during the whole time that the lucerne is in a growing state. He likewise observes that great care ought to be taken not to suffer any weeds to grow among the plants, at least for the first two or three years; and, for this purpose, that the rows, as well as the edges of the intervals where the plough cannot go, should be weeded by the hand. Burnet is peculiarly adapted to poor land, it proves an excellent winter pasture when hardly any thing else vegetates. It makes good butter; it never swells cattle; it is fine pasture for sheep; and will flourish well on poor, light, sandy, or stony soils, or even on dry chalk hills. The cultivation of it is neither hazardous nor expensive. If the land is prepared as is generally done for turnips, there is no danger of its failing. After the first year, it will be attended with very little expense, as the flat circular spread of its leaves will keep down, or prevent the growth of weeds. On the failure of turnips, either from the fly or black worm, some of our farmers have sown the land with burnet, and in March following had a fine pasture for their sheep and lambs. It will perfect its seed twice in a summer; and this seed is said to be as good as oats for horses; but it is too valuable to be applied to that use. It is sometimes sown late in the spring, with oats and barley, and succeeds very well; but it is best to sow it singly in the beginning of July, when there is a prospect of rain, on a small piece of land, and in October following transplant it in rows two feet apart, and about a foot distant in rows. This is a proper distance, and gives opportunity for hoeing the intervals in the succeeding spring and summer. After it is eaten down by cattle, it should be harrowed clean. Some horses will not eat it freely at first, but in two or three days they are generally very fond of it. It affords rich pleasant milk, and in great plenty. The severest frost never injures it, and the oftener it is fed upon, the thicker are its leaves, which spring constantly from its root. PART II. OF THE GRAZING SYSTEM. Grazing, in a large sense, will comprehend the entire management of grass lands. These are obviously divided into meadows, or such perennial grass lands as are usually kept for a hay crop, and permanent pastures. The importance of some system for their proper management being adopted will appear from the consideration that by far the greater part of the land of Great Britain is included in one or other of these descriptions. See MEADOW. Of the culture of meadows.-The most luxuriant and valuable meadows are found in the bottom of valleys, and connected with one or more rivers of the neighbourhood: often indeed the entire growing soil has been washed down from adjoining highlands. This, of all other land, observe the Agricultural Reports of Staffordshire, is 'the most productive of grass and hay, yielding sustenance for cattle through the summer and the winter, and producing an everlasting source of manure for the improvement of the adjoining lands. In all cases of extensive enclosures, the improvement of the vale land, or that formed by nature for meadow and pasture, should be first attended to. In this view, the low lands in all situations come under the head of natural meadows. But river or low meadows, from their long retention of moisture, and the great depth of vegetable matter which they contain, are certainly liable to throw up coarse herbage; in many cases therefore more careful drainage, as well as other management, is necessary to bring them into proper condition for the growth of good herbage than is requisite in the hay grounds in more ele vated places. The most proper season for surface-draining grass lands is autumn, when they are comparatively firm and dry; in the early spring months such lands are too full of moisture. The grips, or small open drains, should be cut obliquely in the most suitable directions for conveying off the superficial stagnant water. 'It is a practice, in some cases, to suffer the sods or grippings that are taken out of the trenches to remain on their sides; but it is much better, and a less slovenly mode, to have them conveyed from the land and laid up in heaps, in order to their being acted upon by the winter frosts and other causes, so as to be brought into a state proper for being formed into composts with well rotted farm-yard dung. Much of this sort of draining may be performed at a small expense, and the beneficial effects be very considerable, especially where the lands are very much loaded with moisture, in the quantity of produce.' Besides, such meadow lands demand much more attention in their management in other respects, as those of their being fed by cattle, and the performing of the different operations that are proper for rendering thein productive of good herbage. In these cases stock should be turned upon the lands, and manures be applied with much care, and only when the land is in such a state of dryness as not to be injured by the poaching or breaking of the sward. The higher sorts of grass lands, in most instances, admit of considerably more latitude in performing these different operations, as they are capable of admitting the stock, as well as the dung-cart, more early in the spring months, and of suffering them to remain or be applied at later periods in the autumn without inconvenience. The advantage of this attention is rendered sufficiently plain by the effects which the contrary practice produces in such meadow and other hay lands as are in a state of commonage, where the stock |