L 58

clude the Reports on those counties will describe, most fully, the modes followed there; from which the Berkshire farmer may, I am persuaded, receive some valuable hints, as yet unknown to him, with respect to this artificial and most valuable kind of land.

The hay, cut from these meadows, although of a coarse na- ture, is very juicy, and particularly well suited for milch cows, or ewes, after yeaning: and as the grass is so much earlier on these, than on the natural meadows, too much spirit cannot be excited to render every tract of land, that is capable of being watered, effectually so.

This excellent practice is, I believe, confined chiefly to the West of England. We do indeed, see in some local spots, in the Midland, and Northern parts of the kingdom, a little of it done; but it is not arrived to any degree of perfection, and has to en- counter, like all other improvements, the prejudices of provincial custom.

The benefits produced from the peat, I have already described; and, as it is to be procured at a very moderate expence, it is un- pardonable in any cultivator, to omit using a dressing, at once so beneficial, and cheap.

Too much cannot be said, on the advantages of sainfoin, on the chalky, and dry hard soils, where no other kind of artificial grasses will prosper. It succeeds most luxuriantly, where there is a hard stratum of soil, near the surface, sufficient to resist the penetration of the root, which will otherwise, in better and deeper land, strike to an amazing depth, and exhaust its strength

unprofitably, beneath the surface.

For remarks,&c.