260 THE NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FOOD OF 



The leaves, when full grown, are broad, but thin, having little 

 " body." When cut for hay, they wither and dry very quickly. 

 In fine sunny weather it is no unusual thing to cut this " flying 

 bent " in the morning, and put it into ricks in good condition in 

 the afternoon. It has been successfully used for paper-making, 

 but we are not aware that the practice is carried out at the pre- 

 sent time. It is called " flying-bent," owing to the thin light 

 leaves breaking off by the root, when they wither in autumn, 

 and getting blown before the wind. These settle in drains, 

 which get choked by this and the sand brought down by the 

 next flood. This is a great nuisance on land where there is much 

 blow-grass, necessitating each spring the regular looking to of 

 drains stopped in this fashion. If not done regularly, the 

 difficulty of cleaning out is much increased by another year, and 

 the damages by sanding and Hooding from such drains can not 

 easily be estimated. Blow-grass land, if not mown, sliould be burnt 

 every second year. The flower-head, which grows on. a tall stem, 

 is of a beautiful purple colour, giving origin to one of the names. 

 The seed is used bv seedsmen to adulterate the smaller sized 

 seeds of natural grasses. It is, however, not grown for that pur- 

 pose in this country. As a rule, it does not germinate ; but it 

 would make little difference, as on an ordinary agricultural soil 

 Molinia would not find suitable conditions, and would verv soon 

 die out. 



Tufted aira. Air a cccspitosa, is a very strong, coarse, rough- 

 leaved, dark green grass, which growls in bunches or tufts. It is 

 hardy, and able to resist the action of frost to a much greater 

 extent than most grasses, so much so that, at any time all the 

 winter, part at least of the centre of a tuft is green, and it 

 is on this account that it is so valuable on some farms. Th3 

 sheep are able in a storm to push their noses in among the 

 withered roughness and get something they can eat. It is 

 usually found growing on the better quality parts of hill land, 

 as in good green hollows that are not too dry. It was to the 

 roots of this grass among others that the vole did so much 

 damage, on some of the Scotch Border farms, in 1876-77. The 

 vole is a large, dark coloured mouse, with a short nose. Its 

 work and habits were described by Sir Walter Elliot, in a paper 

 published in the Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club, 1879. As there has been no recurrence of the pest on a 

 large scale, the facts, which were so alarming for a year or two, 

 are now almost forgotten. The tufted aira is considered one of 

 the most obnoxious weeds on the fine old permanent pastures of 

 Lincoln and Cambridgeshire. Cattle and sheep both leave it 

 when they have abundance of the finer grasses, and the con- 

 sequence is it grows the stronger, and stands up giving an 

 irregular appearance and want of uniformity of surface in graz- 



