There is another kind of pasture in England on the chalky hills which are called downs, where useful and hardy sheep are reared.
Here the exposure is less, and the proximity to the plains gives frequent opportunity of driving the sheep to sheltered situations. The grass on the chalk hills is in general very fine and short, and the quality is very good. The soil is only a few inches deep, and has been robbed for generations by the pasturage of sheep during day, which at night are folded on arable land in their neighbourhood for tho sake of the manure which they drop, nevertheless it annually products a crop of close good pasturage. Attempts are made occa sionally to convert some portions of these pastures to tillage : but it is not often an advantageous speculation. A few crops may be obtained at first ; but the thin layer of rich earth, which is st its surface, is soon exhausted, and nothing remains but barren chalk. No art can restore the fine turf which had been produced by ages of pasturage.
Very poor pasture on sandy or gravelly loam. is of very little value to the proprietor. Where the situation allows of such land being converted into plantations, it will generally be found most advantageous to do so, but If there are means of improving them by ploughing,' liming, and manuring, they may often be converted into good arable farina. A great part of Norfolk, which now bears excellent crops of barley, wheat, and clover, was once only poor sandy pasture, where the chief income to the proprietor arose from rabbit warrens. We must not always judge of the capabilities of a soil by the natural grasses which grow upon it, before it has ever been stirred and culti. rated. When loamy sand or gravel is left in a hard condensed state, it will bear very little, bnt when it has been broken imp deep, and trenched and improved by lime, marling or claying, and manure, it becomes very useful land. The same may be said of cold wet pastures on a stiff day, the means of improvement then being drainage, burning, and deep culture. The water checks the roots of tin better sort of grasses, and nothing thrives in eueh pastures except rushes and very coarse aquatic plants; but when they have been carefully drained—when the surface has been pared and burnt, and the ashes spread over the land—a very immaterial improvement takes place, whether it be left unbroken, to produce herbage, or be improved by a course of judicious cultivation, and laid down again to grass in a clean and fertile state; in either case, the pasture, from being of little use, and perhaps dangerous for sheep, which are apt to rot there, becomes sound and good, producing excellent nutritious herbage, and will continue so ever after.
Pastures are seldom improved with manure, which is generally reserved for amble land, or grass land intended to be mown for hay : but if richness is valuable in a pasture, it will well repay the expense of manuring, especially with liquid manure, the drainings of dunghills and the urine of cows and horses, which is collected in a tank when they are kept in stalls. Peat ashes are also very useful, and have a powerful effect in stimulating the vegetation of all the grasses. Salts
petre and nitrate of soda are said to have the same effect. When it is intended to convert land which has been in a state of heath or waste, covered with fern, brambles, ling, and other coarse plants, into good pasture, it is indispensable to begin by a course of arable cultivation ; and it is only when the soil has been brought into an improved state by tillage and manuring, and all the roots and seeds of noxious plants have been eradicated, that grass seeds may be sown with nay prospect of obtaining a good sward. :Host of these soils are poor and sandy, and not very favourable to the growth of good grass. In this case the safest mode of converting the land into pasture is by inoculating It with pieces of sods taken from a good rich pasture. LAND.] By this means, and subsequent depasturing with sheep only, very good pastures have been produced on very poor soils ; and if in the course of a few years they should degenerate, they may be profitably broken up and cultivated on the convertible system of husbandry, after which they may again be laid down for a certain number of years. Wherever the soil consists of a sandy or gravelly loam, this system is the most advantageous. As to choice of manures, it is 'found that ammoniacal manures tend to the growth of the grasses, and that phosphate and mineral manures tend to the growth of clover and leguminous plants.
In the richest pastures, such as those of Lincolnshire and other grazing counties, en acre will maintain and fatten an ox of SO or 90 atone, and sometimes keep several sheep in store order besides. There is a marked difference between land that will fatten an ox, and that which will only rear him. This can scarcely be discovered by simple examination of the land ; but is found by experience. The same appearance of grass has more proof, as it is called, in one place than another. The bite may be very short, and the pasture appear bare, and yet the value of it may be seen on the ribs of the cattle. Much of the skill of a grazier consists in stocking hie pasture to advantage. lie should know the power of every portion of it, and stock it so that the grass may not grow faster than it can be cropped by the cattle or sheep, and that the animals may always have the full quantity required. Every animal wants a certain quantity of food to repair the daily waste occasioned by the animal functions. If he has no more, he makes no progress : the more he can convert into flesh and fat beyond this quantity In a given time, the morn profitable he will be. Ilence the superior qualities of some animals with respect to this point indicate the superiority of their breed, and afford the greatest net profit to the grazier. In the same pasture one beast or sheep will give a reasonable profit, while another may occasion an actual loss. The adaptation of the stock to the nature of the posture is consequently an object of the greatest importance, and requires much judgment and experience.