THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



153 



having observed it for many years in a large park which 

 is constantly well-stocked with deer, sheep, horses, and 

 cattle, and where every other grass is " eaten to the 

 bone," this is the only one that completes its culms and 

 flowers in any quantity, and these stiff rigid " bents is 

 brown" are so wholly and completely left to wither on 

 the ground, as none of them are cropped, that they 

 remain for months. Our opinion of this grass, then, is 

 poor indeed ; so much so, that, under all circumstances 

 and in all conditions of soil, in laying down a per- 

 manent pasture we should most carefully exclude it. 



Thirdly, Downy or Woolly Grasses. — A good suc- 

 culent grass, may generally be known from the circum- 

 stance that its foliage is clean or devoid of hairs or down 

 on the one hand, but not, rigid or stiff on the other. 

 The hairiness is a sign of poverty, whilst the rigidity of 

 foliage argues an ill-conditioned moor or a poor un- 

 drained clay. In this latter decision, however, care 

 must be taken not to confound grasses and sedges, 

 though it will usually happen that both will be found 

 growing under the same circumstances ; though at the 

 same time sedges of some species more particularly 

 affect pots of sand, especially those that hold water, from 

 being situate in hollows of clay. Bad grasses and 

 sedges approach each other in habit, constitution, and in 

 properties so nearly, that practically the diagnosis to be 

 derived from them will be the same. At the same time, 

 as a matter of scientific inquiry, we should be ever care- 

 ful not to confound them. As examples of the grasses 

 to which these remarks would apply, we may quote the 

 following :— 



Holcus lanatus 

 „ mollis 



Bromus mollis 

 „ erectus 



Avena pubescens 



Woolly soft grass. 

 Soft grass. 



Lop or annual brome. 

 Upright brome. 

 Hairy oat-grass. 



Of these, the two first are sometimes called " fog 

 grasses," from their wet aspect in the mornings of 

 autumn. The vapour condensing on their hairy 

 structure, they are generally distasteful to cattle — the 

 first being general in damp places in ordinary soil ; but 

 the second affecting decomposing sandstones, especially 

 those associated with the coal formation. Bromus 

 mollis is a too frequent annual, especially in upland 

 pastures. It is a poor grass, which takes possession of 

 the soil to the exclusion of better kinds. 



The B. erectus is quite an inhabitant of limestones ; 

 and from its freedom of growth, and not bad-looking 

 culms and flowers, its herbage might readily be mis- 

 taken for something good, until a closer examination 

 shows us that sheep and cattle only feed upon it 

 when folded in a limited space ; in fact, they must be 

 starved to it, and then it is only second to starvation 

 for them to be obliged to live upon it. Still this 

 treatment is for the good of a pasture where it oc- 

 curs, as this method of manuring rapidly discourages 

 its growth, when the better kinds proportionably increase. 



The Avena pubescens affects light upland pastures, in 

 which its young math is not unwholesome ; but its 

 culms add but little to the weight of the rick, and 

 that little is, as farmers say, wanting in " proof." 



From these remarks we see that even grasses them- 

 selves may be of the nature of weeds in pasture ; but 

 it fortunately happens that all these are discouraged 

 by good treatment of the meadows on which they occur. 

 So that, in fact, good and bad grasses are always in an- 

 tagonism ; for though they are nearly always present 

 in the same field, a good condition of soil will reduce 

 the bad grasses to a scarcely perceptible minority : 

 only, however, let it get out of condition, and the 

 good will die out before the advance of the poorer 

 kinds. 



THE USES OF STRAW. 



The economic uses of straw are manifold; but we 

 believe that there are many applications of the culms 

 of grasses, and the leaves of trees, &c., that are little 

 known generally, and their importance quite unappre- 

 ciated in consequence. The uses of straw for litter and 

 for feeding, for thatch and for brickmaking, as a pack- 

 ing material and for stuffing palliases, are of course 

 generally known. Straw has also been again brought 

 extensively into use of late years as a paper material. 

 Buckwheat straw has been used for dyeing yellow. 

 We do not use straw-shoes for our horses, nor for our 

 own pedal extremities, as they do in Japan ; but we do 

 use straw for making hats and bonnets, and that to a 

 much larger extent than many are at all aware of. 

 Few probably could have supposed that the straw plait 

 manufacture, carried on in one or two towns in the 

 home counties, gives employment to 80,000 or 90,000 

 persons, chiefly females, and is valued annually at one 

 million and a-half sterling. And yet these and many 



other important facts connected with this large and 

 growing manufacture are elicited from a paper on the 

 "Straw Plait Trade," recently read before the Society 

 of Arts, by Mr. A. J. Tansley, of Luton. Some of the 

 main facts stated, witli others indirectly connected with 

 the subject, we think it desirable to place before our 

 readers for general reference. 



Bedfordshire has long been celebrated for the pro- 

 duction of beautiful wheat straws, suitable for the pur- 

 poses of plaiting. The first straws used for the making 

 of plait in this country were grown in the neighbour- 

 hood of LutoD. Straw-growing now extends through- 

 out the southern part of the country, in the valleys and 

 along the slopes of the Chiltern hills, and also in parts 

 of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and 

 Berkshire. The best soils are light but rich ; the stiff 

 clays, being unsuitable, will not produce good straws. 

 Some soils that would produce good straws, but not 

 yield a fair crop of wheat, are only cultivated for the 



