152 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



NOTES ON MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 



By JAMES BUCKMAN, F.G.S., .F.L.S., 



Professor of Botany and Geology at the Royal Agricultural College. 



In remarking upon the plants which are injurious to 

 pastures, our notes would be manifestly incomplete did 

 we not take into consideration the nature and effects of 

 such grasses as from their structure and qualities are 

 either innutritious or injurious, and consequently in 

 their efl'ect can only be ranked as weeds. These may be 

 considered under the following heads: — 



First, grasses which are injurious by reason of awns 

 or spiculse. 



Secondly, grasses which are useless from their rigid 

 and sapless structure. 



Thirdly, grasses which are woolly and innutritious. 



First, grasses mechanically injurious. — If the in- 

 quirer will take up a flowering spike of Hordeum mu- 

 rinum (wall barley), he will find that all the palea of the 

 flower are terminated with straight rigid awns, forming 

 what is called the cone or beard — the same, though dif- 

 fering in degree, as the cones to cereal barley or bearded 

 wheat. These awns again have along their whole length 

 two opposite rows of sharp spicules pointing upwards? 

 giving them, under a lens, a peculiarly barbed appear- 

 ance. Many of our readers will call to mind the man- 

 ner in which they used, as a youthful trial in experimen- 

 tal philosophy, to put a head of barley flowers up the 

 sleeve, and in the action of walking it would travel up 

 to the shoulder ; this arose from the circumstance that 

 the little spiculse on the awns would go smoothly enough 

 if compressed the right way, but they could not be 

 brought down the arm, as then these points would be 

 acting like so many barbs, and they would consequently 

 stick into the dress. Now just the same is it if taken 

 into the mouth of cattle, these barbed awns get under 

 the tongue, down the throat, and stick into the gums, 

 thereby creating such disturbance and inflammation 

 that, however good the general mass of the hay, cattle 

 will not thrive upon it ; and, indeed, we have seen cases 

 in which the resulting irritation, from this cause, almost 

 precluded the possibility of mastication. Now, in illus- 

 tration of this subject, we may record the result of the 

 examination of the pasture of a fine rich park in the 

 Vale of Gloucester, the soil of which was lias clay as a 

 substratum, ameliorated by a thin covering of ancient 

 marine drift and river silt, as it was at one time part of the 

 old or wider estuary of the Severn. On taking a list of 

 the grasses (and there were few other kinds of plants), 

 we found them to consist for the most part of the best 

 meadow species, such as 



Lolium perenne . . Rye-grass. 



Poa pratensis . . Meadow grass. 



Festuca pratense . . Meadow fescue. 



Bactylis glomerata . Cock's-foot. 



Phleiim pratense . . Timothy-grass, or cat's-tail. 



Alopecurus pratense . Fox-tail grass. 



Anthoomntimm odoralvm , Sweet vernal-grass. 



Now, these grasses, with clovers, so far present us 

 with all to be desired in a good meadow, whether for 

 hay or pasture ; but intermixed with these was a goodly 

 sprinkling of the Hordeum murinum (wall-barley) and 

 H. pratense (meadow barley-grasses) — the first induced 

 to grow from the presence of sandy spots in the lighter 

 parts of the drift covering, and the second taking a na- 

 tural position in the deeper and better soils. In passing 

 over this park in company [with the proprietor, we ven- 

 tured to remark, " What a magnificent pasture, but 

 how unfortunate for haymaking !" Now, as this inves- 

 tigation and the remarks thereupon were quite inde- 

 pendent of any solicitation on the part of the proprietor, 

 but simply the spontaneous remark of one used to such 

 observations in walking over the estate with him, he 

 was anxious to know the reasons for our conclusions, 

 stating at the same time that his bailiff had always told 

 him that this park was better adapted for pasture than 

 hay, as the stock throve upon the glass, while they did 

 badly on the hay. The reasons, then, have just been 

 explained ; and when to these is added the circumstance 

 that the foliage, and indeed all the herbage of the barley 

 grasses, is highly nutritious, we can see how entirely 

 this is a matter of mechanical injury, as the cattle eat 

 the grass with avidity ; so that if a pasture be examined 

 in the autumn, as this was, the few strong culms that 

 have seeded, and so been left by the cattle, usually only 

 form slight evidence of the quantity that may be present, 

 for which a correct knowledge of the foliage should be 

 carefully obtained. 



Secondly, Hard Grasses. — These form a somewhat 

 extensive list, which will be characterized by a rigidity 

 of stem and foliage ; the latter, indeed, will not unfre- 

 quently be serrated at the edges with spiculse, like those 

 just described ; so that these leaves are quite sharp - 

 cutting instruments, that if handled the wrong way make 

 very painful wounds ; others, again, have their longitu- 

 dinal veins or nervures marked by the same kinds of 

 roughness ; others are simply rigid and sapless. Of the 

 grasses of these kinds the following are amongst the 

 most remarkable : 



Avena pratense , . Meadow oat-grass. 



Aira ccespitosa . . Hair or hajsock grass. 



Bracliypodium pennalum . Heath false-brome grass. 



Cynosurus cristatus . Crested dog's-tail. 



Of these, the two former are of the rough, the latter 

 of the rigid leaved kinds. The three first never can be 

 in quantity in a proper meadow, as the first indicates a 

 want of drainage, and dies out soon after this has been 

 accomplished ; whilst the two next, if found abundant, 

 would lead us to denominate their locale a moor rather 

 than a meadow. For the last of the list, it is but right 

 to say that Sinclair gives it a high character ; but from 



