92 iiouTUs (iiiA.MiNEUs woBu rm:ns 1 s. 



dows it thrives in perfection, attaining to a greater size than 

 in any other situation. In some parts of Woburn Park, this 

 grass constitutes the principal part of the herbage, on which 

 the deer and South Down sheep chiefly browse, while 

 another part of the Park, which consists chiefly of the agros- 

 tis vulgaris fasckidaris, agrostis vulgaris tenuifolia, festuca 

 ovina, fesluca duriuscula, and festuca Cambrica, is seldom 

 touched by them ; but the Welsh breed of sheep almost 

 constantly browse on these, and almost entirely neglect the 

 cynosurus cristatus, lolium jiereune, and port trivialis. There 

 has been a difference of opinion with respect to the merits of 

 this grass : it certainly does not aflTord so early a bite to 

 cattle in the spring as many other grasses, and the culms 

 are uniformly left untouched : but this is more owing to the 

 season in which they are produced, than to any particular 

 defect ; as there is then a profusion of root leaves and herb- 

 age in general, which is always preferred by cattle to the 

 culms : when the grass is in flower, the culms are succu- 

 lent, and contain much nutritive matter ; it is all, however, 

 exhausted in perfecting the seed. If this grass is employed 

 only for the alternate hubandry, and its merits from thence 

 estimated, it will be considered an inferior grass, as it is by- 

 no means adapted for that purpose, either with respect to 

 speedily arriving at perfection, early growth, or quantity of 

 produce ; but it forms a close dense turf of grateful nutritive 

 herbage, and is little affected by the extremes of wea- 

 ther, where other grasses, superior in the fore-mentioned 

 points, would be produced in tufts, and injured by the ex- 

 tremes of weather. From these facts it is evident, a sward 

 of the best quality, particularly under circumstances where 

 sheep are a principal object, cannot be formed without an 

 admixture or proportion of the crested dog's tail grass. In 

 all the most celebrated pastures I have examined, it consti- 

 tuted a very considerable portion of the produce. It flowers 

 towards the end of June, and ripens the seed towards the 

 end of July. The culms are valuable for the manufacture of 

 straw bonnets*. 



* In the opinion of those who have the care of high-bred horses, 

 the best hay to be met with in the London markets is the upland mea- 



