132 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



The first experiment, or that which ascertained the nature of 

 the soil before and after undergoing the impoverishing course of 

 crops, proves, that the loss of decomposing animal and vegetable 

 matter is the principal injury it sustained, which it is evident may 

 be supplied by manure, though not in one season. The actual 

 experiment of sowing the grasses on the soil thus cropped, and 

 comparing the produce with that which it yielded in its natural 

 state, proves clearly, that after undergoing a course of crops, it 

 may be returned to grass, and afford a produce more abundant 

 than before*. 



The different grasses, and other plants, which compose the pro- 

 duce of the richest natural pastures, are in number twenty-six. 

 From the spring till the end of autumn there is not a month but 

 what constitutes the particular season of luxuriance of one or 

 more of these grasses : hence proceeds the constant supply of 

 rich succulent herbage throughout the whole of the season ; a cir- 

 cumstance which but seldom or never happens in artificial pastures, 

 where the herbage consists of two or three plants only. If the 

 best natural pastures be examined with care during various periods 

 of the season, the produce will be found to consist of the fol- 

 lowing plants : 



Alopecurus pratensis (meadow fox-tail), 

 Dactylis glomerata (round cock's-foot), 

 Festuca pratensis (meadow fescue), 

 Phleum prateiise (meadow cat's-tail), 

 Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet-scented vernal-grass), 

 Hokus avenaceus (tall oat-like soft-grass), 

 P icia sepiutn (creeping vetch), 

 Lolium peremie (rye-grass), 

 Bromns arvensis (field brome-grass), frequent, 

 Poa annua (annual meadow, or Suffolk-grass), 

 Avena pratensis (meadow oat-grass), 

 — which afford the principal grass in the spring, and also a great 

 part of the summer produce. 



* The produce of the difFerent annual crops, grain, and bulbs, were all heavy, 

 except that of the last crop of wheat, which was very inferior, as might be ex- 

 pected. The exact weight of each crop was not ascertained, as the experiment 

 was not made with any view to obtain a knowledge of the comparative advantages 

 or disadvantages of permanent pasture and tillage land; but merely for the purpose 

 above-mentioned. How much less a judicious rotation of crops might have affected 

 the soil, cannot at this moment be decided ; but it will be allowed that a more 

 severe course of crops could hardly have been adopted. 



