The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-02-18 00:00:00

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MEADOW AND PAf3Ttiliii LAND IMPROVEMENT.

Moat accurate observers declare and practical agricul-
turists generally admit that our permanent meadow and
pasture lands have usually but scanty justice afforded
them. In mixed arable and pasture fanna the grass
land is too often regarded as a mere auxiliary to the
the arable, and is dealt with accordingly. Yet no kind
of land will make • better return for liberal treatment
than permanent grass. Both for hay and feeding the
produce may be increased nearly indefinitely, and when
permanent grass land has been once brought up to a
state of high condition, such condition can he retained
at comparatively small coat.
A lecture ow the "Natural History, Enonomy, and
Treatment of Meadows and Pastures, which Professor
Buckman ,(of the Agricultural College, Cirencester,)
lately delivered at the Farringdon Agricultural Library,
brings together numerous facts which the occupiers of
grass land will do well to consider. He said that in
arable culture improvement had advanced se rapidly
that "they UQW got something like double the produce
they obtained from the same quantity of land fifty years
years ago, whereas in grass land it was generally ad-
mitted that they were rather behind, and that they did
not do so well as they formerly did." This we believe
to be too true. With the exception that a good deal of
grass land has of late years been drained, its manage-
ment has rather receded than advanced. Farmers had
not studied the natural history of the grasses of whisk'
meadows were made. Comparing England with other
countries, our meadows and pastures "the great glory
of this island," and they were "productive in proportion
as they were cared for and attended to." There are in
this country 150 species of grass which adapt themselves
to all circumstances, and in proportion as pasture land ,
is neglected, these which are called sour grasses will
prevail; On the other hand, good pastures consist of a
few species of the right sort. The effect of care in cul-
tivation is to kill the sour grasses.
And meadows require cultivation as much as arable
land, not with the same expense, but still they most be
cultivated. They meat be drained, and this would soon
kill the coarse "hassocks" always found in wet
meadows. Draining also destroys what are galled the
water grasses. Irrigated meadows require separate con-
sideration. Next, dry meadows require rolling, which
promotes the intermixture of grasses, and pastures are
only in good condition where there is a uniform texture
caused by the intermixture of grasses. Rolling prevents
grasses growing in patches and becoming wild, and the
more a pasture is rolled the better is becomes. He
instanced a park in which militia had been exercised
day by day, and, had enormously improved the pasture,
Then harrowing was also important to preterit the
growth of mom and to clear away the decayed greases.
Some good pasture grasses are good for hay.
As to the amelioration of pasture. by folding, Mr.
Buckman said :—" If they went on constantly feeding
Amin a Meadow with cows or sheep, and did not take
hay from it, it would, under such circumstances, be
very slew indeed to deteriorate. In fact, farmers very
generally couothded that letting sheep upon the pasture
was the way to revive it, however much deteriorated
before. Year after year some carted away hay from
the meadow'' and returned no manure; but, to compen-
satecompen-
satefor that, they folded sheep upon it, as there was
some sort of notion that there was a great virtue in
sneep to restore pastures. There was DO innate virtue
in sheep to do this; but there was virtue in time • time
allowed portions of the grass to be decomposed, and
fresh food was thereby given for the other grasses to
grovT. It is quite true that sheepfolding did an'
m sith of good ;. but the sheep added no new food, and
It Vras lly to say that they added manure. What they
did was simply this: they returned that grain which
they ate, in anew form, and in that form it was food,
but-there was nothing new added. If they constantly
fed cows upon meadows in that way, it would for a time
get better than what it had been, but it would eventu-
allyget worse, and he weirld ere an instance of this.
Ia Cheshire, where a moat remarkable good cheese was
,thade, he found ten yearP ago the meadows full of rushes
and sedges, grease with hollow and triangular stems,
and exceedingly rough pasture. Sedges grew for the
most part in wet sands. He foiled that the people had
. teen constantly exporting an immense amount of cheese,
and the flesh end bones re cattle, and the result was
that the meadows were getting oonstantly poorer. • The
phosphate had been taken out of the land, and con-
verted into the bones of the cattle, and then the sedges
came up in the impoverished condition of the, lands and
replacad the true grasses, which required better food.
In orddr to remedy this, the termini-in Cheshire—
which Is a great county for salt—put a quantity of salt
over the meadows, and this killed every one of the
rushes and sedges; and, as semi as the salt had dis-
solved the framework of these grease*, this formed
kind of manure, and refreshed the pasture again. But
this refreshment was very much like that which WM
given by folding sheep; nothing new was added ; they
got no new conditions, and the meadows gredually re-
lapsed into the same poor coadition. But the Cheshire
farmer now, to compensate for the bones and flesh
which be had emit off the meadows in hie cattle, was
now bringing back a compound containing similar meter
rials— a guano whit* contained benirelnet •th ;great.
quantities, and alto a lerge amount of superphospluitd;
and they were using this to a larger extent then ear.
other county in England, and the result was that the
pastures were becoming thoroughly restored. Here,
then, was the true theory, of sheep-folding.. They
might bring e meadow into a certain condition try feed-
ing sheep upon it, but it would not always remain in
that condition. Whatever they took off in the shape of
mutton was so much impoverishment cif the
_land.
Whenever they wanted to restore I ligature in a' very'
bad condition, they might yery reedily do it by taking
the sheep from the turnip field towards evemng, sI
folding them on the meadow the whole ef 'the nht,;
then the cheep would bring something from the thruips,
and add to the meadow new manure, There was no'
question they would do an enormous moonlit of good in.
that wag."
Where hay is made on meadows and sold or constmed
elsewhere, manure must be brought as a compensation,
or the land would be impoverished.- Yet this is too
often neglected. The grass intended -fin. .hay ie often
allowed to stand too long, as if grass be allowed totorm
seed theta is a deterioration in weight and quality:
though there may be greater bulk. The %dem, after
some remarks on artificial grasses arid theirmanagement,
insisted strongly on the importance of weeding iisaturee,
The best plan is to aped and boo out the weeds. This
should be done in spring and autumn, and is applicable
especially to thistles, which disappear under a system of
constant cutting. In reply to an inquiry, the lecturer
said pastures should be rolled in epnng, assoon as the
frost is off, and that cross rolling is of great benefit in
consolidating the grass, For narrowirig, the bet&
harrow Is the most adriotageoul. Aa,a Mthert for
meadows be recommended I iniXtuta of guano,
superphosphate of lime, and soot, and if , very poor, a
large quantity of auperphosphate of lime or nitrate of
poteeh would be ad visable. Farm-yerd manure, however,
is the best of all.

We have known farmers use the spiked or ringed
rollers, called clod crushers, with great benefit ma their
meadows, and this quite swords with the views &have
expressed.

We will venture to aasert, that it has never entered
the mind of any of our fair readers teimagine the deter-
mined reeistanoe that would be made by the stronger
se: if their favourite Allaop or BAN was for the future
to be breirSd from malt *Kid had been previously
covered with mineral powder; then why should Fmgliah
merohants, for the sake of the extra profit, allow China-
men to jet rid of their ingorior Tea by oovering the
"green with 'a bluish powder and making Black kinds
more intensely dark, knowing that the mineral powders
must neceesarily be washed og and taken la
ui grate
oountrywoen when the tot atlable ,
nion Co. are convincedthalsaterling quaint. O.-
ferred before mere appearance, they therefore impotten,
their Tea without powdered colour on the wises.
These Pare Teaser, to be bad only pi Assn* o#
WA.