288 STATE BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



clovers, in botany, are leguminous plants, and belong with peas, bean?, vetches, 

 lucern, sainfoin, lupines, locusts, etc. 



PASTURES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



Among all the nations of the earth, none, that I am aware of, has given so 

 much and so careful attention to pastures and meadows as our friends of the 

 British Isles. Rent is there very high. To be a successful farmer everything must 

 be done to the best advantage. Slip-shod farming there will not afford a living, 

 as it often does in our newer country. Although they follow out a certain rota- 

 tion of croj^s, and are able to give good reasons for such rotations, yet they are 

 nearly, if not quite, unanimous in keeping a part of the farm in permanent pas- 

 ture or meadow. The longer a piece lias been seeded the better it suits them. 

 According to their belief and practice, a pasture never becomes very good until 

 it has been seeded six or more years. In their opinion, "it is certainly unde- 

 sirable to break up tolerably good pastures for the purpose of converting them 

 into arable land." 



So carefully have they studied the nature of the different grasses and the soils 

 they are adapted to that the seedsmen, according to demand, sell certain mix- 

 tures of grass seeds suitable for each geological formation. 



In laying down land to permanent pasture, M. H. Sutton, of Reading, Eng- 

 land, in 18G1, gives the following list of grasses, and clovers, and the quantity 

 of each which he considers "the best possible mixture for a good medium soil, 

 neither too heavy nor too light. These are all," he says, "of excellent proper- 

 ties ; and, coming to maturity at different seasons of the year, are found to pro- 

 duce a permanent and evergreen sward :" 



Lbs^ 



Alopecurus pratensis (meadow fox-tail) 1 



Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet venial grass) i^ 



Cynosurus cristatus (crested dog's-tail) 1 



Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass) 2 



Festuca duriuscula (hard fescue) .._ 4 



Festuca pratensis (meadow fescue) - 4 



Festuca ovina (sheep's festue) -. - 2 



Festuca rubra (red fescue) 2 



Festuca tsnuifolia (slender fescue) - 2 



Festuca loUacea (darnel-like fescue).-. 2 



Loliuin perenne sempervirens (evergreen perennial darnel) 6 



Lolium perenne tome (slender iierennial darnel) 4 



Phleum pratense (timothy) 1 



Poa pratensis (Kentucky blue-grass, June grass) 1 



Foa trivialis (rough-stalked meadow) 1 



Poa nemoralis (wood meadow-grass) 1 



Ifedicago lupulina (none such, medisk) 1 



Trifolium repens (white clover) 4 



Trifolium repens perenne (perennial white clover).. 4 



Trifolium pratense perenne (perennial red clover) 1 



Trifoliutn hyhridum (Alsike clover) 2 



For a varied soil in Cumberland, England, in 1875, Robert Jefferson uses 40 

 ft)S. i^er acre of the following : 



Lbs. 



Italian rye-grass 6 



Perennial rj'e-grass G 



Cocksfoot (orchard grass) 3 



Timothy " 2 



Meadow fescue 3 



Various-leaved fescue 1 



Cow grass 3 



Rough-stalked meadow grass 2 



Lbs. 



... 2 



Meadow foxtail T 2 



Crested dogstail 1 



Rib grass 1 



Alsike clover 5 



White " - -- 5 



