148 llOKTUS GllAMINEUS M'OBURN£NSlS. 



Here then is a satisfactory proof of the superior value of the 

 crop at the time the seed is ripe, and of the consequent loss sus- 

 tained by taking it when in flower; because, in this instance, the 

 weight of each crop is nearly the same, and the latter-math which 

 would be produced in the time that is taken up in perfecting the 

 seed is infinitely less than that of many other species of grass 

 Avhere the loss of latter-math, under such circumstances, would 

 far outweigh any superiority of the nutritive qualities of the crop 

 at the time the seed is ripe, if such superiority was great, which 

 is seldom found. 



The weight of hay produced from grass of the flowering crop is 

 much less than that which is performed by an equal weight of the 

 grass of the seed crop. In Mr. Young's Annals of Agriculture 

 we are informed, that so long ago as the year 1785, Mr. Boys, of 

 Betshanger, in Kent, a farmer of the highest reputation, raised, 

 at much expense, and several years' attention, from twenty to 

 thirty bushels of the seed of this grass, which he then offered for 

 sale at three shillings per pound. He says that it makes a very 

 fine thick turf, and will produce a great quantity of very excellent 

 grass from moist rich soils. He used the straw after the seed was 

 thrashed, instead of hay, for his riding-horses, and they preferred 

 it to his best meadow hay. To have the land covered thick, more 

 than seven pounds of seed should be sown to the acre. Dr. Smith 

 observes that it does not bear the frost so well, nor does it shoot 

 so early in the spring, as the Poa pratensis ; but when the weather 

 becomes warm enough to make grasses in general shoot, this 

 grows faster, and produces a greater crop of bottom leaves than 

 most others. The experiments above detailed were made before 

 I met with the observations of Mr. Young and Dr. Smith, just 

 quoted, and all my observations tend to confirm thoSe opinions 

 concerning this grass, except as regards its fitness to form a pasture 

 of itself, stated by Mr. Boys. 



The superior produce of this Poa over many other species, its 

 highly nutritive qualities, the seasons in which it arrives at per- 

 fection, and the marked partiality which oxen, horses, and sheep 

 luive for it, are merits which distinguish it as one of the most 

 valuable of those grasses which affect moist rich soils and shel- 

 tered situations : but on dry exposed situations it is altogether 

 inconsiderable ; it yearly diminishes, and ultimately dies off, 

 not unfrequently in the space of four or five years. Its pro- 



