CHAPTER II. 



OF THE GRASSES AND OTHER PLANTS WHICH CONSTITUTE THE 

 PRODUCE OF THE RICHEST NATURAL PASTURES. 



It has long been a prevailing opinion, that rich pasture 

 land, when once broken up for a course of crops, cannot for 

 a great length of time be again brought to so good a sward ; 

 and this opinion is founded on the best grounds — on experi- 

 ence. The causes why those grasses, which constitute this 

 valuable sward, cannot be renewed in as great perfection 

 after a few years' removal from their natural soil, must either 

 be, that these plants require many years to attain to that 

 degree of productiveness ; or, that the soil has been too much 

 deteriorated by the crop, or course of grain crops, taken pre- 

 vious to renewing the grasses ; or, lastly, that the seeds of 

 grasses different from those which composed the valuable 

 sward, have been employed in their stead. Whether to one, 

 or all of these points, the want of success is to be imputed, 

 it is of importance to inquire. 



Grasses, like all other vegetables, possess a peculiar life, 

 in which various periods may be distinctly marked. Some 

 species of grass are annual, or arrive at perfection in one 

 year, and then die away : as different species of brome-grass, 

 fox-tail grass, ray-grass, oat-grass, 8cc. Other species, in 

 two or three years attain to that degree of perfection which 

 they never exceed : as perennial ray-grass (lolmmperenne), 

 rough meadow-grass (poa trivialis), meadow cat's-tail-grass 

 (phleum pratense), tall oat-like soft-grass (holcus avenaccus), 

 round cock's-foot-grass (dactylis glomerata), &c. ; and there 

 are but few grasses that require more than three years to 

 bring them to that state of productiveness which they never 

 exceed, if properly treated during that time: meadow fescue 



