92 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



same extent of land a far larger amount of nutriment for ani- 

 mals. They give this product immediately, or at least, in a 

 very few months from the time of sowing, while permanent 

 mowing lands, or the perennial grasses, require a great length of 

 time to arrive at perfection, varying from one to four or five 

 years. The amount of fertilizing materials drawn from the air 

 and stored away in the soil by means of the roots, and capable 

 of benefiting the crops of the succeeding year is very consider- 

 able, while, in the natural grasses, it remains under the turf 

 and does not come into use till the sward is broken and sub- 

 mitted to culture. We may choose for forage culture plants 

 which start up early in spring and are capable of being used 

 even before the natural grasses have attained a size to make 

 them particularly valuable for grazing. 



Besides, the mass of manure which may be made from the 

 product of an acre of land by the use of forage plants, owing 

 to the increased yield, over and above what would be obtained 

 from the same acre in the natural grasses, is an item too rarely 

 taken into the account. 



Moreover the plants usually called forage plants, like the 

 clovers, lucerne and green corn fodder, may have some advan- 

 tage over root culture, their expense being generally less, their 

 product, dried, more easily stored, and kept with less danger of 

 injury and decay, and the mode of feeding out to animals 

 attended with less trouble. 



Red Clover, (trifolium pratense.') We have given our 

 whole attention, in the preceding pages, to what are strictly and 

 properly called the natural grasses. We now come to consider, 

 very briefly, the artificial. Curious as it may appear, the arti- 

 ficial grasses were cultivated first in point of time, in England, 

 the red clover having been introduced and grown there about 

 the year 1633 ; sainfoin, 1(351 ; yellow clover in 1659, and 

 white clover about the year 1700 ; while not one of the natural 

 grasses was cultivated till nearly a century later, with the excep- 

 tion of perennial rye grass, first cultivated in 1677. About the 

 year 1759 the custom of sowing the chaff and seed dropped 

 from the hay stack, along with the artificial grasses and rye 

 grass began, and soon after — between 1761 and 1764 — tlie cul- 

 tivation of Timothy and orchard grass was introduced from, 

 America. The culture of the bent grasses, the sheep's fescue 



