ON THE MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS IN ENGLAND. 



Ill 



that it has been in grass for centuries,and the fields in question have 

 been in grass for an unknown period, but they bear the marks 

 of the plough, and having been abandoned to nature, had become 

 covered with the indigenous and native plants that exist more 

 or less in the fields still. The ploughed fields being left in the 

 imperfect tillage of olden times, would soon gather a green 

 mantle around them; but the most of the parks and policies 

 around the seats of the noblemen and gentlemen of Scotland 

 were laid down in a correct and modern style about a hundred 

 years ago, and their aspect does not carry one back to so remote 

 a date as the grazings of England, Trefoil or " Great Claver," 

 and St Foyne (sainfoin), and also lucern are referred to by Capt. 

 Bird in 1653 as great discoveries, the seeds of which were 

 obtained from France and Holland, and they appear to have 

 been fed off and used as forage crops, but mainly for the latter 

 purpose. A farther advance was made at the beginning of the 

 18th century in the introduction of clover and ryegrass, but like 

 the sainfoin and lucern, their cultivation had embraced a limited 

 area. A story is told of persons coming out of curiosity from 

 remote parts of the country to see a field of red clover at the 

 end of the first quarter of last century. 



The home farm of Cardington is situated in the plains of Bed- 

 fordshire, and consists of an alluvial soil, bordering on the valley 

 gravel and the Oxford clay. The land surface is only 100 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and is about 60 miles inland from 

 the coast. The different enclosures are mowed every two years 

 and fed the third, the aftermath is regularly fed off, and they 

 occasionally receive a dressing of muck. It is a common estimate, 

 and it holds true here, that every three acres keep a cow summer 

 and winter. "We shall enumerate the plants of whicli the hay 

 mainly consists: — 



Anthoxanthum (Sweet vernal). 

 Lolium perenne (Ryegrass). 

 Agrostis stolonifera (Bent). 

 Poa. 



Avena flavescens (Yellow oat grass). 

 Cynosurus cristatus (Cr. dogstail). 

 Alopeeurus pratensis (Meadow foxtail). 

 Phleum pratensc (Timothy). 

 Fescue ovina (Sheep's fescue). 

 Dactylis glomerata (Ronnd cocksfoot). 

 Trifolea and trifoil (Red and white 

 clover). 



Arrhenatlurum (False oat). 

 Holcus lanatus. 



Hordeum, murinum (Wall burnel). 

 Briza media (Quaking grass). 

 Triticum repens (Couch grass). 

 EanvMculus B. and C. (Crowfoot). 

 Plantago (Plantain). 

 Gentaurea nigra (Knapweed). 

 Ononis arnensis (Rest, harrow). 

 Bromus's (Brome grass). 

 Carduus acaulis (Stemless thistles. 

 Bellis perennis (Daisy). 



Excepting some varieties of the same genus, the above list 

 includes the most, if not all, the seeds sent out by seedsmen as 

 their select mixture for such a soil as Cardington; but it is 

 scarcely necessary to explain that the half of those enumerated 

 above are weeds, some of which may be good as condiments, but 



