The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-01-18 00:00:00

DORCHESTER FARMERS' CLUB.
"PERMANENT PASTURES."

A meeting of this club was held at the King's Anna
Hotel on Saturday night, when Mr. Hawkins pre-
sided. The following were present :—Mr. Chapman
Saunders, Mr. R. Gouge (Watersoe), Mr. Oakley
Saunders, Mr. R. N. Howard (Weymouth), Mr. J.
Groves (Weymouth), Mr. Ransoms, Mr. Beale,
Mr. S. Vine, and Mr. Chick.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings,
announced that their next meeting would be on the
12th of February, when Mr. Day, Medical Officer of
Health of this town, would read a paper on "Agricul-
tural Chemistry." There would be one more meeting
to complete the session, and he hoped they would gat
• volunteer to give a paper before that time. Mr.
Saunders had laid upon the table an analysis of eight
samples of manure sent t) Mr. Bernard Dyer, F.C.S.,
F.J.C., giving the relative value of the manures sent.
An order had boon issued by the Privy Council for
stopping the market for the next six weeks, and con-
sidering that in the neighbouring county of Somerset,
in 1872, they lest £219,159 by the disease, and in 1875,
£154,469, they would, he was sure, feel that the
order was a very just and proper one, and they would
therefore support the order of the Privy Council in
every possible way. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. CHAPMAN 5AU1411A:4 ALIO expressed his approval
of the order. .

Referring to the analysis mentioned, Mr. R. N.
Howaim said he thought it was of the utmost import-
ance, and considering that their county analyst was
paid by the county, they ought to have the power to
send things to him. Personally, he was very much
displaseed.and dissatisfied in this matter. The analyst
got a heavy salary and bad very little to do.
Mr. J. GROVZB : He would not undertake the
manure business. He is appointed for the purposes of
public health.
Mr. Howse]): You are taxed for it, and he is paid
for the purpose, and he ought to.
The Cualitmam thought Mr. Howard's remarks
worthy of attention. He himself thought they ought
to make more use of him more than they did. They should
have sent the samples to him and offered a consider-
ation for the special work. He considered there ought
to be a man kept to do that sort of thing.
I a
oAUNDIII.B : I will undertake to say he
would not undertake that sort of analysis.
. . .

Mr. W. CHICK remarked the County Analyst warn
appointed under the Public Health Act and the Food
and Drugs Act., and as to a heavy salary he only hat
220 a year.
The subject then dropped.
, . . .

Mr. Mikis (of the firm' Of Messrs. Carter and C 0..) then
read a paper on "Permanent Pastures: their Formation
end Management." The laying down of land to permanent
pasture, be said, has now become one of the most important
;sections of Britiah agriculture, and it is the duty of all
who are interested in the subject to make known any
facts which may add to our store of information on the
subject. The term permanent pasture may. of course, be
applied to a great variety of grass lauds, including moor.,
COl/10101111, heaths, Mc., but his remarks did apply thistly
to the more valuable Kress lands, in fact, to such lands as
will pay for seeding, manuring, draining, and other
operations calculated to improve them. Having referred
to the a ivantages of grass land over arable land, he went
on to consider the physical conditions necessary to main-
tain the beet kinds of grasses in a permanent state, and
they were these. That the land should be of such
a texture as not to part with moisture toe rapidly nor
hold it toe long, and we find these conditions beet ful-
filled with • fair depth of mould resting upon a well
drained clay subsoil. The most valuable kinds of grasses
can beat be kept in • permanent *tat, by good cultivation,
which of course includes sufficient draining and judioal
manuring. But the wetter and poorer the land is allowed
to become the more worthless will be the vegetation upon
it With regard to altering the texture ef a moil to lit it
for permanent pasture we know that this would, in some
' cases, be too expensive, but, still we think a great deal
, might be dune in this respect. There are no doubt many
cases when sand, for instance, would only have to be
carted a mile or two to improves stiff soil, and we have
known instances of its being carted several miles t, put
on frees land. When we consider that the effect is
permanent this (repents is relatively very much
diminished. For all crops we know how desirable is a floe
tilth, but for no crop is this more necessary than for grass.
The roots being so very minute, and some of theca not
going very far in search of food, their feeding ground must
be thoroughly well prepared by disintegration. Draining
is a sno4 necessary part of the preparation of the land for
permanent pasture, and in no other case will It. good
effects be more maurfeet. The land should be clean and
in good heart, and we cannot combine these important
points more perfectly than by recommending feeding a
crop of swedes on the laud and sowing the grass seeds in
a fine tilth, with the aid of the cultivator in preference
to the plough. Another point for consideration
under this head is whether we shall sow the grass
geed with a corn crop or not, and he gave his
decision in favour of laying down without a crop
(of course, excepting special cease). With regard to seed-
ing, a very important point, there are as many as 4.000
known species of greases distributed over the world, and
there is not a soil to which some of them are not
Indigenous, some growing best on dry, sterile soils, others
on rich soils; some thrive best in marshes, stagnant water,
slow streams, come on the lies coast, but those which are
best suited for permanent pasture thrive best under culti.
ration, and these are somewhat limited in number when
compared with the total number of species. The
varieties and quantities will of course vary considerably
according to the nature of the soil to be sows. And the
success of the pasture will be in • greet measure due to
the skill exercised in deciding the varieties to be used aud
proprrtioeing the amount of each variety. A well-con-
stituted mixture for permanent purturee should contain
many varieties of grasses and clovers. A well-mixed
pasture has the advantagd of being earlier, lasting longer,
and given, • I,avier and bett:r feed than One composed
entirely of a few or a single variety of grass. With regard
to the time of sowing, he suggeste I that th.. early part of
the year be chosen for seeding, and hie experience was
that March and ,kpril are generally the best months. But
as we do not always get the sem. sort of weather in one
particular month every year, we cannot lay down a fixed
rule, but everyone west use his own judgment, remember-
ing that a dry time for seeding, followed by moist warm
weather, if we can manage to arrange our work so exactly,
is sure to be followed by the best results. If, however, it
Is thought expedient to sow in August, it should be
remembered that slugs and frost may probably destroy
part of the clovers, so that it well be well to examine the
pastures in the spring, and if necessary sow more clover
seed. As to the common practice of sweeping hay lots of
everything it contains, including dust and chaff. and
worse than these, the seeds of many weeds and inferior
maws, it would be wiser Policy to pay twice over for
good seed than use so-called 'hay seeds.' Is towing we
cannot too strongly urge till necessity of covering thl
ground evenly, every blank giving a cfianee for weeds to
make their appearance, and theca should therefore be
re-sown as soon as noticed. Bowing is best ablated' with
the seed-barrow one calm day. When we emember that
from fin, to fin. is the depth at which the large.t
percentage of grass seeds germinate great care should be
taken not to bury them toi deeply. The plan of "Inocu-
lation" has been suggested by some for laying down land
to greet It consists in paring an acre of good pasture,
cutting the turf into small pieces, and spreading them
Over about 10 acres of properly prepared land, when they
are troidegi la right aide up, half the usual quantity of
seed le *en used and this whole is rolled down: but • far
more speedy proiltablii reettlt will he obtained by sowing •
wooer mixture of made on wall tilled soil and covering
them lightly. Another importing Point few consideration
Is the renovation of peas lands. Suppose, for ietsnoe, a
piece of gram land has become mow and foggy. erid
requires a little mod properly p 4 to resters tto its
former freshness, we should 2000rond the following
Wen. Put the hem harrows over ground is different
anemone until all the mom and rough herbage has been
loosened solleCt this with • liesee-rake arid remove it,
give a liberal dressing of a good compost such u arth and
R weighting the 'coulter well, and
finish drill th
offwith. seeds
in,
the roLler. We have heard of another plan,
sueseelY. that 01 Penning shown very closely for so aail:,
over the newly sown seed. Of course it will be adv
go amend to manuring after tbo °Petition to render the
itsal efil* In"' WWI& • Maid for geitiag rid

moss is by penning sheep fed with swedes, cake, or corn
rexularly over the add. We now come to the after-
management upon which, as upon most of the other
points, we have noticed there is some diversity of opinion.
The first year we should cut early before any of the
gramme are in dower, and aftirwards roll repeatedly. BY
cutting early you check weedu besides.encoeraging the
geese to tiller. It 'nay in all probability stand • second
cutting, and after this, unless it get. very luxuriant, we
should Prefer leaving it alone till spring ; if, however,
the growth Is very strong • few goone cattle may be
turned in. By all means keep sheep out of the pasture.
We have heard • great deal about the golden tread of the
sheep, but we must remember that it depend., alt >gather
whether it treads as to .htther the tread is gulden or
otherwise. It is the close cropping ‘,l the sheep on newly-
laid grass.' ind, or upon the best meadows, which does e.
much harm. Good posters* on which oxen are fed are
Injured by sheep which reject the coarser grasses, and
pick out the finest, but a few horses turned into them in
autumn or winter help to consume the coarser turfs.
The commit gram may also be made into hay, or if cot
and left on the ground till partially dry, the stook will
readily eat it. A dressing of lime and milt scattered over
the rougher parta ii, autemn will sweeten the herhoge
and Induce the stock to sat it down regularly. Rich
pastures intended for fattening cattle should not be used
during winter, but allowed to become luxuriant before
turning the cattle on them in spring. In changing cattle
from one puttee to another, let the change be gradual,
and always to • better, if possible. With regard to
manuring, we would suggest that various kinds should
be used in order to keep • good mixed herbage. The
beet artificial manure, are guano, which is rich in phoe-
;abates and nitrogen; and, in moderation, nitrite of soda
and sulphate of ammonia, which are rich in nitrogen.
Guano may be applied at the rate of 14 t, 2 o wt. per
acre. A good mixture is made with three pots guano,
one part nitrite of soda, stud one of sulphate of ammonia.
Of this mixture 2 cert. to 24 cwt. per acre may be used.
February lithe be.t time ass rule to sow this. Of course
ferinyard dung will always du good on grass lands, the
only fault with which is that We cannot get enough of it,
aud so we must study the marmite for a substitute in the
way of artificial =vaunts, cake, ttn. The cleaning. of
ponds and ditches ahould always be well exposed ti the
air before applying them to the land; it is also well to
031 X lime with them, by which means the p
matter they contain is rend 'red harming,. We can
only add that the bettmr you trost your posture the better
it will treat you. But we believe that grass land is
becoming better appredated and understood than it was,
and judging from the yearly increase of land put into
grass, we think that the opinions we hive expressed this
evening are no doebt held by a great majority.
(Applause).
Mr. CHAPMAN SAUNDIRIA opened the discussion OR
the subject. There were some things in the paper
which be did not agree with. It had advocated a
crop of corn before laving down permanent pasture.
In some of their very dry soils a crop of corn was an
advantage, because it helped to shelter the land very
much, but on some lands it would not answer so well.
Mr. Mears had also spoken as to getting rid of muse,
which was a very interesting subject to him, as he
had some bind given to moss. In conclusion be
thanked Mr. Mean for his piper.
Mr. R. Grain said the subject of permanent pasture
was • subject which at the present time had attracted
consideraule attention. The paper which had been
read was intended, he apprenended, to treat on Per.
manent Pastures, their formation and their manage.
ment, but he imagined it had treated more fully on
its formation. In the course of his remarks he said it
had been observed that corn di I not pay. That was
true enough to • certain extent, but they could not
do without corn, whether it paid or not. It would
be more correct to say that a half-crop of corn did not
pay. They must manage somehow or other to grow
only good crops; et course they could not control the
seasons, but if they did not grow the crops they must
be the losers. They could nut do without corn crops,
because they could not do without straw; and they
could not keep their grass land in order and grow
roots without a good quantity of manure, and there
WY nothing like farmyard manure. He should like
to have heard more fully explained the proper sorts of
grasses for inferior clay lands. The cold clay Mods of
this country which were so extensively cultivated were
the lands which must imperatively go out of cultiva-
tion. The improvement of permanent pasture was a
very important subject, and one which affected agricul-
ture of the present day to a great extent.
Mr. CHICK male a few remarks relative to the time
of sowing.
Mr. Vile' was Of opinion that unless an occupier
had a long lease permanent pastures would not pay.
Would it pay to lay them down, that was the question.
The CLUBMAN also thought the question resolved
itself into one of pounds, shillings, and pence. If per-
manent pasture would pay better than cropping in regu.
tar rotation, he had no doubt it would be very soon done.
For his part he did not think it would. They had
been told oorn.yrowing did leit pay, but supposing a
man was farming 400 acres, and he got nothing out of
it in the*way of crops, who was going to pay his rent?
He did not think it was for them to make permanent
pastures in this country.
The proceedings soon after terminated.