ON THE MANAGEMENT OF PERMANENT PASTURES.
However good our meadows and pastures may be, it is but natural that we
should wish to keep them in good condition, and, if not so good, our
object should be to improve them.
We have already adverted to weeding as a requisite in the improvement of
meadow; we are equally clear upon the subject of draining. On both of
these points, however, we have met with opposition. The farmer who
considers that all is hay that he can get together in a rick, may look
more to mass than quality, though even here we are inclined to think
that if we take hay and pasture together, the more grasses and the less
of rubbish we can get a field to grow, the greater will be our produce
in quantity and quality.
With regard to draining, we are told that it takes the goodness out of
the meadow; but if we have a meadow on clay—we will suppose lias or
Oxford clay,—with only a few inches of a stiff soil at the surface, we
shall find that those few inches are the only available root ground.
Drain, and then we shall soon see that air will follow the water: this
united, air and water will decompose plant-feeding matter never before
reached.
Now, where the mistake has been made is, that from this time the herbage
gets less and less coarse, and perhaps in some seasons would not produce
the weight of hay; but what there is both of hay and grass would be
much improved, and would become capable of carrying better stock.
The following reply[3] of Mr. Bailey Denton to some objectors to
draining in Middlesex is, we think, much to the point on this important
subject:—
Mr. Denton stated that he had been recently over the estate of Lord
Northwick, near Harrow, in company with the noble lord and some
friends and tenants. On that occasion the question of the
reluctance of hay farmers to drain the land was discussed, and the
farmers said that as they always had a great deal of custom in
London for hay, of whatever quality it was, they did not seek so
much for quality as for quantity, and consequently did not think it
worth while to drain the land for feeding purposes, although they
admitted that draining made the herbage sweeter and better for
cattle. The present system, under which the grass-land of the
Harrow district had been cultivated for many years, alike
impoverished the hay farmers and the land; and he was of opinion
that if drained, the latter would produce grass of a much better
quality, and equally as much in quantity. He thought a good plan
would be to feed off part of the land and put the other into hay.
[3] Discussion Royal Agricultural Society, March 21, 1863.
If asked what would be our criteria as to the necessity of draining, we
should say stagnant water at any time.
Plants, however, afford evidence to be depended upon; as thus take the
indications of a few weeds common to wet meadows:—
Sedges } Show a want of }
Rushes } thorough drainage. }
Bull-pates and other } } _Perhaps_ partial }
coarse Grasses } or grip drainage } Full
Devil’s-bit Scabious } may do. } drainage
Buttercups (R. acris) } _Perhaps_ less } certainly
Lousewort } } haymaking and more } required.
Field Orchids } manure is indicated, }
Cowslips } and draining _may_ }
Moss } be done without. }
Now, as regards very wet meadows, it is found that they are seldom if
ever manured; for, just as I was told as regards some of the low lands
on the banks of the Yeo, in Somersetshire, that it did not pay to manure
them; so one might easily imagine that where the land is full of water,
and perhaps of moist _humus_, manure would not tend to the increase of
good grass, though it might to that of thistles and buttercups.
Meadows that are sufficiently sound to yield tolerable hay are too much
worked to this end, and are, we think, getting poorer. The Cheshire
pastures offer a good example of the effects of greed in this matter. A
century ago we feel sure its grass-producing powers were far beyond what
they are now. Grass is gone in hay and bones and cheese, but for
generations the farmer has gone on depasturing to make manure; but as it
will be seen, on reflection, that cattle can only deposit as manure,
matter which they have taken from the field and converted into manurial
substance, they cannot add any new material: so then this method of
restoration must fail at last. Another restoration employed in this
county was that of using their salt as a top-dressing. This, as it
killed all the coarse grass, and so converted it into manure, recovered
the pasture, by, out of bad and rough grass, growing good ones; but this
too would fail in time. Hay, the framework of growing cattle, and
cheese, have gone on converting the phosphates and the bone matted of
the soil into their substances, and it is now found that returning this
in the shape of bones and superphosphates is rapidly effecting an
improvement.
Hence, then, we would recommend less of greed in haymaking. Do not
ripen the grasses too much before cutting. Don’t trust to grazing for
restoring the phosphates and other ingredients of the hay, but bring
them in the shape of manure.
Use heavy rollers in spring to smooth and consolidate the soil; replant
the roots thrown out by worms; mat the turf more thoroughly together;
and crush larger but useless plants.
There is, then, less difference between the cultivation of pasture and
of arable land than would at first be thought.
Drainage, acts of husbandry, amelioration of soil by rubbish of all
kinds where too tenacious, manuring them by farmyard dung, or, failing
this, such artificial manures as bones, superphosphates, guano,
nitrates, soot, &c.,—these are the sheet anchors in the improvement of
our pastures; and by these we should realize the hope of _making two
blades of good grass grow where one did before_.