HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS, 247 



prove clearly that much less seed is required to form an artificial 

 pasture of one or two species of grass, than is required to form a 

 pasture for permanency, whose properties of produce and value 

 shall equal or approach to that of the best natural pastures. The 

 artificial pasture of rye-grass and clover, above mentioned, had 

 been made by sowing one bushel of seeds, viz. three pecks of rye- 

 grass and one peck of white clover and trefoil, three plants to the 

 square inch were produced by that quantity of seed ; and had more 

 seed of the same species of grass been used, it is more than pro- 

 bable, from the above facts, that the pasture would have suffered 

 rather than benefited by it ; but had there been used the seeds of 

 a variety of different species of grasses, double the quantity of 

 seed might have been used, and the value or productiveness of 

 the pasture increased in the same proportion. 



The results of Mr. Taunton's valuable experiments on the 

 cultivation of separate grasses, and the interesting remarks of 

 Mr. Blakie on the same subject, are in perfect confirmation of the 

 above statements, respecting the quantity of seed to be used in 

 cases where only one or two species of grass are cultivated. Four 

 bushels and a half of the above mixture of grasses will give (omit- 

 ting fractions) the same number of seeds to the square inch, as 

 the like space of the sward of the irrigated meadow contained 

 plants : now, after deducting for the deficiency caused by the num- 

 ber of barren seeds in many of those essential grasses, this quantity 

 of four and a half bushels per acre of this mixture of different seeds, 

 will be found for general practice not too much. The practical trial, 

 mentioned at page 130, proved precisely the truth of the above cal- 

 culations. But should the proportions of the different kinds of 

 seed be altered from the above, the quantity of seed required for 

 a given space of ground will be less in proportion as the fertile 

 seeded grasses predominate in the mixture ; and the smaller the 

 number of different species that are combined together, the 

 smaller will be the quantity of seed per acre required, ten pecks 

 being the maximum, and two pecks the minimum. The above cal- 

 culations of the number and weight of the diflerent seeds, will 

 afford a ready guide to determine the number of plants of grasses 

 which will be produced on a given space of ground, from a known 

 weight or measure of the seed, whether it be of one species of 

 grass only, or of a combination of many species. 



The larger seeds should be mixed by themselves, and, in the 

 same manner, the smaller seeds should be mixed together, and 



