88 UOIITUS GRAMINEllS WO B U R N ENSl S. 



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

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

 excellent orass from moist rich soils. He used the straw 

 after the seed was thrashed, instead of hay, for his riding- 

 liorses, 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 i\\\^ poa over many other species, 

 its highly nutritive qualities, the seasons in which it arrives 

 at perfection, and the marked partiality which oxen, horses, 

 and sheep have for it, are merits which distinguish it as one 

 of the most valuable of those grasses, which affect moist 

 rich soils and sheltered situations : but on dry exposed 

 sitiuitions it is altogether inconsiderable ; it yearly dimi- 

 nishes, and ultimately dies off, not unfrequently in the space 

 of four or five years. Its produce is always nmch greater 

 when combined with other grasses than when cultivated by 

 itself: with a proper admixture it will nearly double its 

 produce, though on the same soil, so much it delights in 

 shelter. Those spots in pastures that are most closely eaten 

 down, consist for the most part of this grass : I have exa- 

 mined many pastures with this view, and always found it 

 the case wherever this grass was more predominant. From 

 all which it appears, that the poa trivialis, though highly 

 valuable as a permanent pasture grass on rich and sheltered 

 soils, is but little adapted for the alternate husbandry, and 

 unprofitable for any purpose on dry exposed situations. It 

 llowers towards the end of .Tune, and ri['ens the seed in the 

 middle of July. 



