is admitted at all seasons, and under all circumstances.'

'In a piece of clayey meadow land,' mentioned in the Agricultural Report of Middlesex, which was exposed to the treading of cattle during the wet season of winter, with a view of fully ascertaining the effects of the practice of suffering cattle to remain too long upon grass hay lands, it was found that after three years, notwithstanding every possible care and attention in rolling, manuring, and sowing grass seeds, was employed, it was not restored to its former state of sward.' And it is said that, on the deep tough yellow clayey grass lands in this district, it is well known that wherever a bullock makes a hole with his foot, it holds water, and totally destroys every vestige of herbage; which is not quite replaced till several years after the hole is grown up. Bog-meadows are drained and managed in

a similar manner with other low meadows.

The upland meadows of Middlesex yield also some fine hay crops; being so well situated for receiving the manure of the metropolis. Here moss, mole-hills, and ant-hills, are the great enemies of the farmer: and the destruction of the latter is often a process of no small difficulty. It is said that where grass lands are sufficiently rolled with a heavy roller, once or oftener every year, no ant-hills will ever be formed greater than the roller can compress, and consequently no injury will be sustained. In this, as in most other cases of disease, observes Mr. Loudon, proper regimen is the best cure. 'In domestic economy, various directions are given for destroying bugs, lice, and other vermin; but who ever had any to destroy, who attended properly to cleanliness?'

With regard to the application of manure, we are told in the Middlesex Report, that almost all the grass lands in the county are preserved for hay, that the manure is invariably laid on in October, while the land is sufficiently dry to bear the driving of loaded carts without injury, and when the heat of the day is so moderated as not to exhale the volatile parts of the dung. Other agriculturists prefer applying it immediately after hay-time, or from about the middle of July to the end of August, said to be the 'good old time' (Commun. to Board of Agriculture, vol. iv. p. 138); others again from the beginning of February to the beginning of April (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 915). The dairy farmers in North Wiltshire,' observes Mr. Davies, and in particular the graziers, are much more attentive to the quality than the quantity of their hay. They make a point of haining up their meadows as early as possible in autumn, and of course are able to mow early in the summer. It is not uncommon to see grass mown, not only before it is in blossom, but even before it is all in ear; and to this it is owing that it is more common to fat cattle with hay alone, in North Wilts, than perhaps in any country in the kingdom. And by this the dairy-men are able to keep up the milk of those cows that calve early, and from which calves are fatted, which otherwise shrink before the springing of the grass and never recover. And the advantage they get by early after-grass, and by the duration

of that after-grass to a late period in autumn, fully compensates for the loss of quantity in their hay crop.'

Dr. Anderson says it is in general understood that, if hay can be made so as to retain some tinge of its green color, it is better than if it were bleached white or rotted; but precautions are seldom thought necessary to be adopted for guarding against the effects of scorching sunshine, which, by too quickly exhaling its natural juices, renders it sticky, brittle, and unpalatable to a certain degree; and, what is of still more importance, the effects of rain, or even dew if abundant, if they are suffered to fall upon the grass after it is cut, and before it be made into hay, are seldom adverted to; so that if dry weather comes soon to exhale that wet, while the grass lies spread out upon the ground, the farmer feels little anxiety about the consequences; though it is a certain fact that no hay which has been in the least wetted during the process of hay-making can ever be made to have that sweet palatable taste it would have had without it. Nor has our author ever seen that beasts, when allowed to choose between hay so made and that which has been guarded from moisture, ever hesitated to make choice of the last, or committed a mistake, even where he himself could not distinguish a perceptible difference. But to obtain hay in all cases of the very best quality the circumstances will admit of, the following process, he says, may be safely conjoined with the practice of cutting and feeding beasts with grass in the house as above recommended. Where the produce of grass land is to be cut, as above described, and used green, it will be proper in general to reserve a part of it for hay. In this case the cutting for grass and for hay should be carried on together, but with the following variations, depending on the uses it is to be applied to. That part of the grass which is intended to be used green, as it will suffer no damage by being cut when wet, must continue to be cut regularly each day as it is wanted, without regard to the weather; whereas that part of it which is intended for hay ought on no account to be cut while wet; and, therefore, that part of the operation must be discontinued, unless when the weather is dry and fine; nor should it ever be cut either in the morning or the evening, while dew is upon it. And as the hay, in the mode proposed, ought to be made day by day, for a continuance, as the grass comes forward for the scythe, while the weather is in a proper state for it, and not all at one time, as in the usual mode of hay-making, the cutting both grass and hay from the same field may be very economically combined together. For this purpose the grass which is cut in the morning, while the dew may perhaps be upon it, and in the afternoon, ought to be appropriated to the beasts green; and that part of the grass only which is cut from nine till two o'clock, while the weather is dry and fine, should be made into hay. If the mower begins to cut down for hay about nine o'clock in the morning, and goes on in that operation till one or two in the afternoon; and, if the persons who are to put up the hay begin that operation about one, the grass will

thus be allowed to lie between three and four hours in the swathe, exposed to the sun, which will exhale some part of its moisture, and deaden it enough for the purposes required, though it still retains the whole of its nutritious juices without abatement. After being allowed to lie thus long it should be raked clean up, and carried off the field in the same cart that is employed for taking in the grass, and immediately put into the stack, so as that the whole grass that was cut that day shall be put up before evening; and thus regularly each good day throughout the season. But as grass, while in this green and succulent state, would not keep if put up by itself, care must be taken to provide some dry forage to mix with it. For this purpose nothing can be so proper as good dry hay; but, for want of that, at the beginning, good straw may be very safely employed. Our author once saved a great quantity of clover hay, being a late third cutting, when the season was too far advanced to admit of its being made in the usual way, by putting it up when new cut, thus intermixed with a large proportion of good straw. It kept perfectly well; and, when cut down and given to the beasts, was relished by them better than any other hay he had, and was equally valuable for every purpose.

Every part of the management in Middlesex, with regard to hay, has been acknowledged by able judges to be very superior. When the grass here is nearly fit for mowing, the farmer generally lets it out to be mown by the acre; calculating that a healthy man will mow from one and a-half to two acres a day, beginning very early in the morning. He provides five hay-makers to each mower, and they are expected to bring a fork and rake of their own. The course of operations that now takes place is thus described in the Middlesex Report :

First day. All the grass mown before nine o'clock in the morning is tedded, in which great care is taken thoroughly to loosen every lump, and to strew it evenly over all the ground. By this regular method of tedding grass for hay, the hay will be of a more valuable quality, heat more equally in the stack, consequently not so liable to damage or fire; will be of greater quantity when cut into trusses, and will sell at a better price; for, when the grass is suffered to lie a day or two before it is tedded out of the swathe, the upper surface is dried by the sun and winds, and the interior part is not dried, but withered, so that the herbs lose much, both as to quality and quantity, which are very material circumstances. Soon after the tedding is finished, the hay is turned with the same degree of care and attention and if, from. the number of hands, they are able to turn the whole again, they do so, or at least as much of it as they can, till twelve or one o'clock, at which time they dine. The first thing to be done after dinner is to rake it into what are called single wind-rows; and the last operation of this day is to put it into grass

cocks.

Second day. The business of this day commences with tedding all the grass that was mown the first day after nine o'clock, and all that was mown this day before nine o'clock. Next, the

grass-cocks are to be well shaken out into staddles (or separate plats) of five or six yards diameter. If the crop should be so thin and light as to leave the spaces between these staddles rather large, such spaces must be immediately raked clean, and the rakings mixed with the other hay, in order to its all drying of a uniform color. The next business is to turn the staddles, and after that to turn the grass that was tedded in the first part of the morning, once or twice, in the manner described for the first day. This should all be done before twelve or one o'clock, so that the whole may lie to dry while the workpeople are at dinner. After dinner the first thing to be done is to rake the staddles into double wind-rows; next, to rake the grass into single wind-rows; then the double wind-rows are put into bastard-cocks; and, lastly, the wind-rows are put into grass-cocks. This completes the work of the second day. Third day. The grass mown and not spread on the second day, and also that mown in the early part of this day, is first to be tedded in the morning, and then the grass-cocks are to be spread into staddles as before, and the bastardcocks into staddles of less extent. These lesser staddles, though last spread, are first turned, then those which were in grass-cocks; and next the grass is turned once or twice before twelve or one o'clock, when the people go to dinner as usual. If the weather has proved sunny and fine, the hay which was last night in bastardcocks will this afternoon be in a proper state to be carried; but if the weather should, on the contrary, have been cool and cloudy, no part of it probably will be fit to carry. In that case the first thing set about after dinner is to rake that which was in grass-cocks last night into double wind-rows; then the grass which was this morning spread from the swathes into single windAfter this the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks is made up into full-sized cocks, and care taken to rake the hay up clean. and also to put the rakings upon the top of each cock. Next, the double wind-rows are put into bastard-cocks, and the single wind-rows into grass-cocks, as on the preceding days.

rows.

Fourth day. On this day the great cocks just mentioned are usually carried before dinner. The other operations of the day are such, and in the same order, as before described, and are continued daily until the hay harvest is completed.

Of the culture of pastures.-Dr. Anderson. in the third volume of his Essays on Agricul ture, has some practical remarks on pastures. which we think worth perpetuating in our work -It is stated,' he says, in the Agricultural Survey of Gloucestershire, that one acre of rye grass, which had been saved from Michaelmas to May, kept nine ewes and lambs one month. We may, therefore, he adds, conclude that the produce of the same field, from May till Mchaelmas, would have been double to that i yielded during the winter half year; conse quently it could have sustained eighteen ewes and lambs one month. At this rate the acre of ground, tang the whole year round, would have affor ed food for twenty-seven ewes and labs for one month. These were large

at certain times of the day or night, when snails and other creatures are abroad, which they may swallow with their food, in all these cases, when observed, the evil may, by an attentive economist, be avoided by a judicious use of the fold. He may also withdraw the sheep from the pastures when they become restless and refuse to feed. In short, a judicious economist, by having folds properly situated, respecting the circumstances of shelter, coolness, water, and other conveniencies, may avail himself of these for greatly promoting the health and enjoyment of the animals, and thus accelerating their feeding; so that, independent of the benefits he shall derive from their dung, he will in other respects reap considerable emolument.

Dr. Anderson observes that some persons contend that the pastures ought to be stocked very lightly; alleging that although much of the produce is thus allowed to run to seed, which the beasts will not eat, and which of course is trod under foot, and rotted by rain, and thus wasted; yet experience, they say, proves that a greater profit will be thus derived from it, upon the whole, on account of the superior thriving of the animals, than by any other practice. Others insist that lightstocking of grass land is a practice highly to be condemned; as it tends not only gradually to diminish its produce, but also to encourage the growth of coarse and unprofitable grasses, which deteriorate the pastures; and that hard stocking of grass lands, especially those of a rich quality, is an indispensible requisite of good management. These two opinions, so diametrically opposite, and which are equally maintained by sensible men, he thinks, clearly prove the embarrassment to which they are subjected, in consequence of their not having adverted to the circumstances stated above, and many other particulars, as affecting the economical consumption of the produce of lands in grass. A third party, he adds, who approach perhaps nearer to the truth than either, advise that a mixed stock should be always kept upon the same field; and that, were the consumption of the foul grass produced by the dung of the animals the only article to be adverted to, it might doubtless be so managed as to correct this evil. But there are so many circumstances to be adverted to, that it is not easy by these means to get them all remedied. In every field a variety of plants spontaneously spring up, some of which are disrelished by one class of animals, while they are eaten by others; and some of which, though eaten readily by some animals at one particular period of their growth, are rejected by them entirely at another. Thus it becomes necessary, not only to have a vast variety of animals in the same pasture, but also a very particular attention is required to augment or diminish the proportion of some of these classes of animals, at particular seasons of the year; otherwise some part of the produce will be allowed to run to waste, unless it be hard stocked to such a degree as to retard their thriving. But, if a great variety of animals be allowed to go at large in the same pasture, they are never suffered to feed with that tranquillity which is necessary to ensure thriving in the highest degree. One class of these wishes to feed, or to play,

while the others would incline to rest. They thus mutually disturb and tease each other; and this inconvenience is greatly augmented if penning of any sort be attempted. From these considerations the practice of intermixing various kinds of stock very much together is productive of evils in many cases greater than those which result from the waste of food they were intended to prevent. And though, by hard stocking, the grass will be kept shorter, and more palatable in general to the animals who eat it, than if it were allowed to run to a great length, yet as animals which are to be fatted must not only have sweet food, but an abundant bite at all times, to bring them forward in a kindly manner, it seems to be nearly impossible to obtain at the same time both these advantages in the practice of pasturage.

Might not these evils, says our author, be greatly diminished, if not entirely remedied, in many cases, by having the produce cut by the scythe, and given to the animals fresh in the house; rather than to suffer them to go at large and eat the produce on the field, even under any system of management whatever? Many arguments, he thinks, tend to show that this practice is, in general, highly economical and advantageous. 1. If the consumption of plants be the object principally attended to, it is plain the benefits will be great; for experience has clearly proved that there are many plants which are greedily consumed by beasts, if cut and given to them in the house, which never would be touched by them when growing in the field. Of this nature is the dock, cow-parsley, thistles, nettles, and many other plants. Upon what principle it should happen that these plants should be so readily eaten when thus given, while they are totally rejected when in the field, he cannot say; but that they are thus eaten, without reluctance, even when the animal is not hurtfully hungry, is evident from this circumstance, that the beasts often fall greedily to these at the moment they are brought in from the field, even before they have had time to become hungry after they had come in. Fewer plants would be rejected or suffered to go to waste on this plan. 2dly. Many of even the best kinds of grasses, which when young form the most palatable food for the creatures, if once suffered to get into ear; are disrelished so much as never to be tasted by them unless to prevent starvation; and as, in most pasture fields, many of these grasses get into ear from various causes, all the produce of these plants is inevitably lost to the farmer. But if cut down by the scythe, in proper time, not one of these is ever suffered to get into that nauseating state; and consequently no waste is sustained. 3dly. But when animals are suffered to go upon the field, many of the plants are trodden under foot by the beasts, and bruised or buried in part of the earth; in which state they are greatly disrelished by them, and are suffered to run to waste; which never would take place were the practice of cutting adopted generally. Lastly. Those few plants which are totally distelished by one class of animals, will not, from this circumstance, become less acceptable to others, but much the reverse. Food that an animal has breathed upon, for any considerable time, be