or PASTURE-Land, is that reserved for feeding cattle.

Pasture land is of such advantage to husbandry, that many prefer it even to corn-land, because of the small hazard and labour that attends it; and as it lays the foundation for most of the profit that is expected from the arable land, because of the manure afforded by the cattle which are fed upon it. Pasture ground is of two sorts; the one is meadow land, which is often overflowed; and the other is upland, which lies high and dry. The first of these will produce a much greater quantity of hay than the latter, and will not require manuring or dressing so often: but then the hay produced on the upland is much preferable to the other; as is also the meat which is fed in the upland more valued than that which is fattened in rich meadows; though the latter will make the fatter and larger cattle, as is seen by those which are brought from the low rich lands in Lincolnshire. But where people are nice in their meat, they will give a much larger price for such as hath been fed on the downs, or in short upland pasture, than for the other, which is much larger. Besides this, dry pastures have an advantage over the meadows, that they may be fed all the winter, and are not so subject to poach in wet weather; nor will there be so many bad weeds produced; which are great advantages, and do in a great measure recompense for the smallness of the crop.

We have already mentioned the advantages of meadow land, or such as is capable of being overflowed with water, and given directions for draining and improving low pasture land, under the article MEADOW; therefore shall not repeat that here, but just mention some methods for improving of upland pasture.

The first improvement of upland pasture is, by fencing it, and dividing it into small fields of four, five, six, eight, or ten, acres each, planting timber trees in the hedge-rows, which will screen the grass from the dry pinching winds of March, which will prevent the grass from growing in large open lands; so that if April proves a dry month, the land produces very little hay; whereas in the sheltered fields, the grass will begin to grow early in March, and will cover the ground, and prevent the sun from parching the roots of the grass, whereby it will keep growing, so as to afford a tolerable crop if the spring should prove dry. But in fencing of land the inclosure must not be made too small, especially where the hedge-rows are planted with trees; because, when the trees are advanced to a considerable height, they will spread over the land; and where they are close, will render the grass poor; so that instead of being of an advantage, it will greatly injure the pasture.

The next improvement of upland pasture is, to make the turf good, where, either from the badness of the soil, or for want of proper care, the grass hath been destroyed by rushes, bushes, or mole hills. Where the surface of the land is clayey and cold, it may be improved by paring it off, and burning it; but if it is an hot sandy land, then chalk, lime, marle, or clay, are very proper manures to lay upon it; but this should be laid in pretty good quantities, otherwise it will be of little service to the land.

If the ground is over-run with bushes or rushes, it will be of great advantage to the land to grub them up towards the latter part of summer, and after they are dried to burn them, and spread the ashes over the ground just before the autumnal rains; at which time the surface of the land should be levelled, and sown with grass-seed, which will come up in a short time, and make good grass the following spring. So also, when the land is full of mole-hills, these should be pared off, and either burnt for the ashes, or spread immediately mediately on the ground when they are pared off, observing to sow the bare patches with grass-seed just as the autumnal rains begin.

Where the land has been thus managed, it will be of great service to roll the turf in the months of February and March with an heavy wood roller; always observing to do it in moist weather, that the roller may make an impression; this will render the surface level, and make it much easier to mow the grass than when the ground lies in hills; and will also cause the turf to thicken, so as to have what the people usually term a good bottom. The grass likewise will be the sweeter for this husbandry, and it will be a great help to destroy bad weeds.

Another improvement of upland pastures is, the feeding of them; for where this is not practised, the land must be manured at least every third year; and where a farmer hath much arable land in his possession, he will not care to part with his manure to the pasture. Therefore every farmer should endeavour to proportion his pasture to his arable land, especially where manure is scarce, otherwise he will soon find his error; for the pasture is the foundation of all the profit which may arise from the arable land.

Whenever the upland pastures are mended by manure, there should be a regard had to the nature of the soil, and a proper sort of manure applied: as for instance, all hot sandy land should have a cold manure; neat's dung and swine's dung are very proper for such lands; but for cold lands, horse dung, ashes, and other warm manures, are proper. And when these are applied, it should be done in autumn, before the rains have soaked the ground, and rendered it too soft to cart on; and it should be carefully spread, breaking all the clods as small as possible, and then harrowed with bushes, to let it down to the roots of the grass. When the manure is laid on at this season, the rains in winter will wash down the salts, so that the following spring the grass will receive the advantage of it.

There should also be great care taken to destroy the weeds in the pasture every spring and autumn: for, where this is not practised, the weeds will ripen their seeds, which will spread over the ground, and thereby fill it with such a crop of weeds as will soon overbear the grass, and destroy it; and it will be very difficult to root them out after they have gotten such possession, especially ragwort, and such other weeds as have down adhering to their seeds.

The grass which is sown in these upland pastures seldom degenerate, if the land is tolerably good; whereas the low meadows, which are overflowed in winter, in a few years turn to an harsh ruffly grass, though the upland will continue a fine sweet grass for many years without renewing.

There is no part of husbandry of which the farmers are in general more ignorant than that of the pasture; most of them suppose, that when old pasture is plowed up, it can never be brought to have a good sward again; so their common method of managing their land after ploughing, is to sow with their crop of barley some grass seeds as they call them; that is, either the red clover, which they intend to stand two years after the corn is taken off the ground, or rye-grass mixed with trefoil; but as all these are at most but biennial plants, whose roots decay soon after their seeds are perfected, so the ground, having no crop upon it, is again ploughed for corn; and this is the constant round which the lands are employed in by the better sort of farmers.

But whatever may have been the practice of these people, it is certainly possible to lay down lands which have been in tillage with grass, in such a manner as that the sward shall be as good, if not better, than any natural grass, and of as long duration. But this is never to be expected in the common method of sowing a crop of corn with the grass seeds; for, wherever this has been practised, if the corn has succeeded well, the grass has been very poor and weak; so that if the land has not been very good, the grass has scarcely been worth sowing; for the following year it has produced but little hay, and the year after the crop is worth little, either to mow or feed. Nor can it be expected to be otherwise, for the ground cannot nourish two crops; and if there were no deficiency in the land, yet the corn, being the first and most vigorous of growth, will keep the grass from making any considerable progress; so that the plants will be extremely weak, and but very thin, many of them which come up in the spring being destroyed by the corn; for whenever there are roots of corn, it cannot be expected there should be any grass. Therefore the grass must be thin; and if the land is not in good heart to supply the grass with nourishment, that the roots may branch out after the corn is gone, there cannot be any considerable crop of clover; and as their roots are biennial, many of the strongest plants will perish soon after they are cut; and the weak plants, which had made but little progress before, will be the principal part of the crop for the succeeding year; which is many times not worth standing.

Therefore, when ground is laid down for grass, there should be no crop of any kind sown with the seeds; or at least the crop should be sown very thin, and the land should be well ploughed and cleaned from weeds, otherwise the weeds will come up the first, and grow so strong as to overbear the grass, and if they are not pulled up, will entirely spoil it. The best season to sow the grass seeds upon dry land, when no other crop is sown with them, is about the middle of September or sooner, if there is an appearance of rain; for the ground being then warm, if there happen some good showers of rain after the seed is sown, the grass will soon make its appearance, and get sufficient rooting in the ground before winter: so will not be in danger of having the roots turned out of the ground by frost, especially if the ground is well rolled before the frost comes on, which will press it down, and fix the earth close to the roots. Where this hath not been practised, the frost has often loosened the ground so much, as to let in the air to the roots of the grass, and done it great damage; and this has been brought as an objection to the autumnal sowing of grass; but it will be found to have no weight if the above direction is practised; nor is there any hazard of sowing the grass at this season, but that of dry weather after the seeds are sown; for if the grass comes up well, and the ground is well rolled in the end of October, or the beginning of November, and repeated again the beginning of March, the sward will be closely joined at bottom, and a good crop of hay may be expected. the same summer. But where the ground cannot be prepared for sowing at that season, it may be performed the middle or latter end of March, according to the season's being early or late; for, in backward springs, and in cold land, we have often sowed the grass in the middle of April with success; but there is danger, in sowing late, of dry weather, and especially if the land is light and dry; for we have seen many times the whole surface of the ground removed by strong winds at that season; so that the seeds have been driven in heaps to one side of the field. Therefore, whenever the seeds are sown late in the spring, it will be proper to roll the ground well soon after the seeds are sown, to settle the surface, and prevent its being removed.

The sorts of seeds which are the best for this purpose, are, the best sort of upland hay-seeds, taken from the cleanest pastures, where there are no bad weeds; if this seed is fitted to clean it from rubbish, three bushels will be sufficient to sow an acre of land. The other sort is the trifolium pratense album, which is commonly known by the names white Dutch clover, or white honeysuckle grass. Eight pounds of this seed will be enough for one acre of land. The grass seed should be sown first, and then the Dutch clover-seed may be afterwards sown; but they should not be mixed together, because the clover seeds being the heaviest will fall to the bottom, and consequently the ground will be unequally sown.

When the seeds are come up, if the land should produce many weeds, these should be drawn out before they grow so tall as to overbear the grass; for where this has been neglected, the weeds have taken such possession of the ground as to keep down the grass, and starve it; and when these weeds have been suffered to remain until they have fed their seeds, the land has been so plentifully stocked with them as entirely to destroy the grass; therefore it is one of the principal parts of husbandry never to suffer weeds to grow on the land.

If the ground is rolled two or three times at proper dilances after the grass is up, it will press down the roots, and cause it to make a thicker bottom: for, as the Dutch clover will put out roots from every joint of the branches which are near the ground, so, by pressing down of the stalks, the roots will mat so closely together, as to form a sward so thick as to cover the whole surface of the ground, and form a green carpet, and will better resist the drought. For if we do but examine the common pastures in summer, in most of which there are patches of this white honeysuckle grass growing naturally, we shall find these patches to be the only verdure remaining in the fields. And this, the farmers in general acknowledge, is the sweetest feed for all sorts of cattle; yet never had any notion of propagating it by seeds, nor has this been long practised in England.

As the white clover is an abiding plant, so it is certainly the very best sort to sow, where pastures are laid down to remain; for as the hay-seeds which are taken from the best pastures will be composed of various sorts of grass, some of which may be but annual, and others biennial; so, when these go off, there will be many and large patches of ground left bare and naked, if there is not a sufficient quantity of the white grass to spread over and cover the land. Therefore a good sward can never be expected where this is not sown; for in most of the natural pastures, we find this plant makes no small share of the sward; and it is equally good for wet and dry land, growing naturally upon gravel and clay in most parts of England; which is a plain indication how easily this plant may be cultivated to great advantage in most sorts of land throughout this kingdom.

Therefore the true cause why the land which has been in tillage is not brought to a good turf again, in the usual method of husbandry, is, from the farmers not distinguishing which grasses are annual from those which are perennial: for if annual or biennial grasses are sown, these will of course soon decay; so that, unless where some of their seeds may have ripened and fallen, nothing can be expected on the land but what will naturally come up. Therefore this, with the covetous method of laying down the ground with a crop of corn, has occasioned the general failure of increasing the pasture in many parts of Britain, where it is now much more valuable than any arable land.

After the ground has been sown in the manner before directed, and brought to a good sward, the way to preserve it good is, by constantly rolling the ground with an heavy roller, every spring and autumn, as hath been before directed. This piece of husbandry is rarely practised by farmers; but those who do, find their account in it, for it is of great benefit to the grass. Another thing should also be carefully performed, which is, to cut up docks, dandelion, knapweed, and all such bad weeds, by their roots every spring and autumn; this will increase the quantity of good grass, and preserve the pastures in beauty. Dressing of these pastures every third year is also a good piece of husbandry; for otherwise it cannot be expected the ground should continue to produce good crops. Besides this, it will be necessary to change the seasons of mowing, and not to mow the same ground every year, but to mow one season and seed the next; for where the ground is every year mown, it must be constantly dressed, as are most of the grass grounds near London, otherwise the ground will be soon exhausted.