ORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



156 • 



it remarkable circumstance in the nature of this 



are he excessive quantity of the oxide of iron, and the 



fo'ant of carbonate of lime or chalk. In a drier climate 



il of this nature would be much less fertile. Lime com- 

 bined with well-prepared compost and applied as a top- 

 dressing, must prove highly fertilizing to a soil constituted 

 as above. In the richest fattening pastures in Lincolnshire, 

 which I have had an opportunity of examining minutely, and 

 which were fully equal to fattening one large ox and four 

 or five sheep per acre, the different species of plants were 

 equally numerous on a given space of the ground, as in 

 those rich pastures I examined in Devonshire ; but in the 

 Lincolnshire pastures, the natural or proper grasses were in 

 a much greater proportion, and, excepting yarrow {Achillea 

 millefolium) and the clovers, there was scarcely a plant to be 

 found out of th^family of the proper grasses. The soil was 

 a fine loam or alluvial soil ; it contained no sensible quantity 

 of carbonate of lime or chalk, and proved, on a chemical 

 examination of its nature, to be very similar in constitution 

 to the soil above mentioned, except that it contained fifty 

 per cent, less oxide of iron, and that the soluble matter of the 

 soil afforded more vegetable extract, in proportion to the sa- 

 line contents, than was indicated in the soluble portion of 

 the Devonshire soil. The results of an examination of the 

 rich fattening pastures in the Vale of Aylesbury, particularly 

 those of Mr. Westcar, at Creslow, were in perfect accordance 

 with the above, and proved in the most clear and satisfactory 

 manner the truth of the conclusions which had, a priori, 

 been drawn from the results of the experiments made indi- 

 vidually on the grasses which compose the produce of these 

 celebrated pastures, and equally as regarded the produce 

 and nutritive powers of the different species. 



The chief properties which give value to a grass are, nu- 

 tritive powers, produce, early growth, re-germinating powers, 

 or the property of growing rapidly after being cropped, and 

 the facilities it offers for its propagation by seed. 



If one species of grass could be discovered that possessed 

 all these properties in a superior degree to every other, the 

 knowledge distinguishing the different species of grass with 

 certainty, that of the soils and sub-soil best adapted to 



