HORTDS GUAMINEUS \V O 11 U R N IINSI S. 177 



reflexed meaclovv-o;rass {pna ?e//'o//era), flat-stalked meadow- 

 grass {poa conipressa), upright flat-stalked meadow-grass 

 (poa conipressa, var. erecla), meadow- barley {hordeum pro- 

 tense), bird's-foot clover (hhis coinicufotus), larger bird's- 

 foot clover {lotiis major), trefoil, or nonsuch {medicago 

 lupuUna) ; to which may be added, hedysai uni onobrychis 

 (sainfoin). The following, belonging to this class of grasses, 

 have already been brought under observation : — Soft brome- 

 grass {bromus mollis), creeping soft-grass (^o/cMsmo///'s), and 

 white or Dutch clover (trijolium repens). 



Dry, elevated situations, sandy heaths, and chalk lands, 

 where the above grasses constitute the principal natural 

 herbage, are less capable of being rendered fit for the pro- 

 duction of superior grasses than peat-bogs, or waste lands 

 that lie under circumstances favourable to irrigation. The 

 latter only require proper draining, paring, and burning, and 

 the application of hot manure, as lime and sand, to fit them 

 for the production of the best grasses, the staple or constitu- 

 tion of such soils being so rich and good. But dry sandy 

 soils require more labour and expense to bring them near to 

 an equivalent state of productiveness, which can only be 

 effected by the application of large quantities of clay, and by- 

 mixing it minutely with the soil. But though poor hungry 

 sandy soils cannot, economically, be improved in such a 

 degree as to fit them for the production of the superior 

 grasses, like peat-soils, which in their natural or unimproved 

 state are even less valuable than the poor sandy soils ; never- 

 theless, there is sufficient evidence from practice, to prove 

 that such soils may be converted to tillage for some years, 

 and returned again to grass in a highly improved state, 

 yielding a produce of double the value of that they originally 

 afforded. I have witnessed improvements to this degree, 

 on such soils in the farms of the Duke of Bedford, at 

 Woburn. In the fourth volume of Communications to the 

 Board of Agriculture, there is a variety of evidence to the 

 same eff"ect. If it should appear, however, from the results 

 of the experiments here made on the grasses natural to 

 these soils, of which an account will be found in the follow- 

 ing pages, that the kinds of grasses employed in the im- 



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