58 



The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



produce was equivalent to 19,057 lb., and 

 its product in hay to 7623 lb. It must, 

 however, be borne in mind that the peat soil, 

 with coal ashes, from which these results were 

 obtained, was by no means well suited for 

 it, as it thrives best upon strong rich clays, 

 such as are common in the fens of England 

 and the carses of Scotland. 



SEED AND SOWING. 



The average weight of seeds may be stated 

 at 14 lb. per bushel, of which there are about 

 26,000 in one ounce; and the greatest num- 

 ber of these braird when not covered with 

 more than half-an-inch of soil ; only about 

 half the same number come up when the 

 covering is from three-quarters to an inch in 

 depth ; and none vegetate when buried under 

 two and a-half inches of earth ; so that they 

 should only be sown on a previously well 

 pulverised surface, and merely rolled in, or 

 covered with a light grass-seed harrow. In 

 grass seed mixtures for permanent pastures, 

 3 to 6 lb. per acre will generally be sufficient, 

 or S lb. may be allowed if on very strong 

 clays ; but when sown alone, about 3 bushels 

 or 40 lb. of seeds per acre will be needed. 



CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 



Neither this nor any of the other broad- 

 leaved Fescue grasses are included among 

 those analysed by Professor Way of Ciren- 

 cester, and we can, therefore, only quote the 

 imperfect analysis recorded in the " Hortus 

 Gramineus Woburnensis," which was made at 

 a time when agricultural chemistry may be 

 said to have been in its earliest infancy; and, 

 according to which, grown on a fertile peat 

 soil, with coal ashes for manure, as before 

 stated, the nutritive extract on the i6th of April, 

 amounted to about 383 lb. per acre, 957 lb. 



at the time of flowering, only about 447 when 

 allowed to stand till the seed was ripe, and 

 380 lb. from the latter-math. 



Although not so variable in size and other 

 characteristics as most of the other common 

 grasses, yet plants of the Meadow Fescue may 

 frequently be found, differing sufficiently to 

 render a selection of the best varieties worthy 

 of more attention at the hands of seed growers 

 than they have yet received. The following 

 two merit a passing notice : — 



1. Festuca pratensis loliacea (F. loliacea 

 and the F. loliacea Germanica of the seed 

 shops). — This differs from the ordinary form in 

 being somewhat stronger in growth, in having 

 longer, lighter green, and much less branched 

 panicles; its seeds are also somewhat larger, 

 and it naturally affects a damper and heavier 

 class of soils. Although its seeds are almost 

 exclusively imported from Germany, yet this 

 variety is by no means unfrequent in low, 

 rich, clayey districts, such as the fenny 

 counties of England ; and the Merse, as well 

 as the Carses of Gowrie and Falkirk in Scot- 

 land. 



2. F. loliacea spurea. — This is figured as 

 the Bucetum loliaceum by Parnell, and 

 although frequently named F. loliacea by 

 botanists, it is nothing but a spurious or im- 

 poverished form of F. pratensis, differing from 

 the true F. loliacea in being dwarfer, more 

 upright, having shorter spikelets, which, as 

 well as the other parts of the plant, are 

 generally more reddish or brownish green in 

 colour, frequently containing fertile seeds, 

 and by invariably becoming less or more 

 branched or panicled Avhen manured or trans- 

 planted to richer soils. 



