My readers will remember that in the previous chapter
I have given, from Arthur Young's great work, his own
opinion as to the various methods for laying down land
to grass, and also those of other agriculturists whose
systems are recorded by him. My present system here,
after the trial of several different methods, is to lay
down in spring with a light seeding of barley or oats*—
a system which I have found to answer well, both as
regards grass and the requirements of the farm, and
which, I may observe, was condemned by Arthur
Young as being the worst; while the late Mr. John
Wilson, Berwickshire, for years adopted a system,
to which I shall afterwards allude, which is very
different from any practised elsewhere, as far as I can
learn. After carefully weighing the merits of the
various systems, I have come to the conclusion that,
in consequence of the variety in both soil and climate,
and the varying circumstances and requirements of the
farmer, no general rule can be laid down as to which
is the best method, and that this should vary according
to the circumstances of each particular locality. And
here I am left to grope in the dark, for, from the non-
existence of the Government experimental farms which
ought to exist in each locality, there is really no means


* With a seeding of slightly under a bushel of barley we have
obtained a heavy crop—or, at least, a very good one; and that, too,
without injuring the grass, which would have suffered had the crop been
obtained with the aid of a full-seeding of barley. In the first case a
number of barley shoots are thrown out from each stem, and this has
the effect of letting more light into the ground, while, in the event
of the crop being laid, the shoots on the upper side of the prostrate stem
remain more or less erect, and certainly raised above the ground, and
thus do not lie on the grass. A heavy crop of barley from a full seeding
gives many stems, with few shoots to each, and both stems and shoots
are of a weak character from crowding; hence, if laid, the crop goes
down like a thatch on the young grass, and, in any case, the young grass
plants are overshadowed, and thus weakened in character.
