HORTUS ORAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 159 



their growtli, and their natural habits, comparative vahie, 

 and merits of the different plants, would then be more for 

 curiosity than utility. But the results of these experiments 

 have proved, that a combination of all the merits and proper- 

 ties which give value to a grass, is not to be found in a su- 

 perior degree in any single grass. Indeed, if such were the 

 case, it would seem singular that nature, for the same pur- 

 pose, finds it necessary to employ so many. 



If a selection of grasses were made with a view to early 

 flowering only (presuming that this property constituted the 

 chief value of a grass), it will be found, that a combination 

 of equal proportions of sweet vernal-grass {anthoxanthum 

 odoratum), sweet soft-grass {holcus odoratus), soft brome- 

 grass {bromiis mollis), annual meadow-grass {poa annua), and 

 meadow fox-tail grass (alopecurns pratensis), will produce a 

 crop ripe to mow in the second week of May, on a soil of the 

 best quality, these grasses being then in flower; but the 

 produce will be found very inferior — the nutritive matter 

 from the whole crop being only 367 lbs. 



A combination of the smooth-stalked meadow-grass {poa 

 pratensis), rough-stalked meadow-grass (jjoa ttivialis), hard 

 fescue (festuca duriuscula), common quaking-grass (briza 

 media), darnel-like fescue-grass {festuca loliacea), long-awned 

 sheep 's-fescue {festuca ovina hordeiformis), and the Welsh 

 fescue {festuca Camhrica), will afford a crop ready for mow- 

 ing in the first week of June. The value of a crop, consisting 

 of equal parts of these grasses, is superior to the precedino-, 

 in the proportion nearly of 4 to 3 ; the nutritive matter af- 

 forded by the whole crop being 486 lbs. 



A combination of equal parts of the cock's-foot grass {dac- 

 tylis glomerata), meadow- fescue {festuca pratensis), tall oat- 

 like soft-grass {holcus avenaceus), perennial ray-grass {lolium 

 perenne), upright brome {bromus erectus), and field brome 

 {bromus arvensis), will produce a crop fit to mow for hay in 

 the third week of June. The value of this crop is superior 

 to that ripe in the first week of June, in the proportion nearly 

 of 13 to 7; the weight of nutritive matter from the produce 

 of one acre being 844 lbs. 



A combination of cat's-tail {phleum prateuse), yellow oat 



