THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



301 



tion : as thus, the Airaflexuosa, even if sown, would 

 die the first year in a rich meadow ; whilst Alopecurus 

 pratensis could not live in a poor upland. 



Group 2. — If these considerations weigh so strongly 

 when we inquire into a confessedly meadow group, it 

 will be expected that those of other localities will be still 

 more out of place when they encroach upon the mea- 

 dow ; and so if we look carefully into the natural history 

 of the Agrarian grasses, we find that these are, as a rule, 

 found infesting our arable culture, in which most of them 

 are weeds of a highly pernicious description ; some 

 growing in waste places and way-sides, as 



Hordenm niuriuum — Wall barley, 

 Bromus raoUis— Soft brome, 

 Bromus atenlia — Sterile brome ; 



others acting as weeds in our crops, and merely choking 

 up or diluting what might otherwise be good, as 



Alopecurus agreatis — Slender foxtail, 

 Avena fatua — Wild oat ; 



whilst some are pests not merely because of their 

 growth above the soil, but from their rhizomata creep- 

 ing beneath the ground, and so forming the weeds to 

 which the names of couch, or squitch, has been applied 

 by the farmer ; such are 



Triticum repens — Couch. 



Poa compressa — Creeping meadow-grass. 



Agroatis atolonifera — Creeping bent. 



Any of these grasses in meadows would be pests almost 

 as much as in the arable field : they are innutritious, 

 and thei'cfore, in growing, would take the place, and 

 food also, of a better kind. And as two things cannot 

 be made to occupy the same space at the same time, the 

 useless should be made to give way to the useful. 



Group 3. — With the species of grass peculiar to woods 

 and thickets of course the farmer would have but little to 

 do ; however they may be useful as covert for game, they 

 seldom stray from their companions, the trees or un- 

 derwood. They are, like the preceding, of no feeding 

 value, and therefore not even worth trying to cultivate 

 as pasturage plants. 



Group 4.— The species of grasses peculiar to the moor 

 and wild heath ore such as, in the mountains of Wales or 

 Ireland, are made to do duty both as green food and 

 hay ; but in such cises it will always be found that the 

 creatures that are made to live upon it are of a very 

 inferior description. Such herbage is not, as might at 

 first be thought, altogether the result of climate, as 

 in the less elevated tracts of England will here and 

 there be found stretches of the grass of the moor, such as 



Triodia decumbena — Heath grass. 

 Molinia catulea — Blue Molinia. 

 Brachypodium pennatum — False brome-grass. 

 Avena pratensis — Oat grass. 

 . Holcus mollis — Soft grass. 



These result from a peculiar condition of soil; and 

 any one of them occurring, as they sometimes do in 

 circles in fields of tolerably good pretensions, show a 

 more or less peaty condition locally, which may re- 

 quire a little additional care in draining, and subse- 

 quent application of lime or salt, by which the in- 

 truder is usually killed ; and then the grasses of the 

 meadow will take their places. 



Group 5, — Water grasses, though usually of little 

 value for their feeding qualities, are of great use, as 

 showing, at a glance, the peculiar condition of any par- 

 ticular meadow. As their list is but small, we here 

 append it in full. 



WATER GRASSES. 



Alopecurus geniculatus — Water foxtail. 



Arundo phragmites — Reed. 



Poa aqnatica-— Reed meadow grass. 



Poa aquatilis — Floating meadow-grass. 

 Phalaris arundinacea — Reed canary grass. 

 Catabrosa aquatica — Whorl grass. 

 Aira crospitosa — Tussac grass. 



Now, most of these will usually be found growing ia 

 the water of ditches and water courses and pools; if in 

 the former, they are great pests to the natural drainage 

 of the country, as if a ditch or stream, the one an artifi- 

 cial, the other a natural drain, be choked up with grow- 

 ing plants, the flow of water is naturally sluggish, and 

 so long as these main drains are in bad working condi- 

 tion little good can be effected to a district by the 

 gridiron system of drains ; in fact, we have seen the 

 most complicated system of draining of this description 

 inoperative on account of weeds choking up the main 

 water channel, the which, indeed, were they removed, 

 would not unfrequently render the more onerous and 

 expensive method all but unnecessary. 



The presence of the Aira csespitosa in a meadow, in 

 ever so small a quantity — and it is too often a meadow 

 grass — is an unerring sign of a want of drainage. We 

 have seen this grass almost killed out by cutting a drain 

 through it, in the short space of two years— growing, 

 however, with immense rapidity on the accidental stop- 

 page of the drain. In irrigated meadows it should be 

 particularly watched, as a few blades in any part are suffi- 

 cient to show that the water is partially stagnant ; this 

 indication will be more particularly dwelt on when we 

 describe irrigated pastures. Water grasses, then, arc 

 useless as food ; but as indicators they are not to be 

 despised ; for with wet, either all or a part of the year, 

 they grow ; but as they die without, their presence is 

 always significant. 



Here then, we must be for the present content with 

 having just hinted at the difference of grasses in different 

 positions, and from what has been advanced it will 

 clearly appear, that all the grasses are not useful for 

 cattle food ; and, therefore, when they intrude in the 

 pasture they should only be considered as weeds. 



From what has been already advanced, it will be 

 concluded that not only may our larger list of grasses 

 be referred to distinctive positions, so that the presence 

 or absence of a species will mark certain conditions of 

 soil and circumstances, but even the smaller list, which 

 we have distinguished as par excellence meadow grasses, 

 will seldom be found to prevail in any one single mea- 

 dow; as thus : the Poajjratensis affects sound pastures; 

 but if a pasture be wet, and especially if any part be 

 subject to stagnant water at any period of the year, the 

 Poa Irivialis takes its place. Again, we find that one 

 species of grass — the Festuca pratensis — is capable of 

 taking on three varieties of form, according to position, 

 namely, 



Festuca pratensis— oi the rich meadow, 



loliacea — of the river flat under flooding, 



. elatior — on the rough sandy clays bordering the sea. 



But, besides the difference in form as aflfeeted by soil, 

 there will ever be a great variation in well-being, and 

 consequently of produce, from the same cause ; as thus : 

 in one field Lolium perenne may make double the 

 height of culm, and offer leaves not only double the 

 breadth, but increased in quantity according to the 

 nature of the soil of which the meadow is composed. 



And, as a still more important conclusion, quality 

 as well as quantity is influenced by the same causes. 

 Hence, then, the nature, quantity, and quality of grass- 

 herbage being influenced by the soil; so these circum- 

 stances, if attentively inquired into, -will not only en- 

 lighten us as to the broader phases in the nature and 

 quality of our land, but even the more minute inflex- 

 ions of condition may be told from the same facts; 

 and we may therefrom conclude not alone that a mea- 

 flow mny reauire manure, but, in fact, what should bo 



y 2 ' 



