284 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



many of their heavy soils, and be found a most profitable grass. 

 I have known, repeatedly, an average yield of more than three 

 tons of this grass to an acre, in well cured hay, in my own 

 country; and, in one case, more than twenty-nine tons, actually 

 weighed, of well-cured hay, principally of herds grass, ob 

 tained from six statute acres of land. In Sinclair s scientific 

 table * of the nutritive value of different grasses, he states that 

 the greatest quantity of nutriment in Timothy is found when 

 the plant is perfectly ripe ; but the cattle greatly prefer it, when 

 it is cut and cured in the flower ; and I am inclined to pay some 

 respect to the decision of judges who seem of right to claim to 

 be competent. 



24. MILLET. I have not seen the millet grass (millium 

 effusum] cultivated in England, though it might be, in my opin 

 ion, to the greatest advantage. I have obtained three tons to an 

 acre, of as good and nutritious hay as can be grown, from this 

 grass, sown in May. I presented some seed to the Royal Agri 

 cultural Society, but I have never yet learned its fate ; and my 

 principal object, in referring to it is. that I may commend its 

 cultivation. 



25. SOWING GRASS SEED. The clovers, are, of course, 

 always sown in the spring, upon the grain. The other grasses 

 are sown very frequently in the autumn, but more often, perhaps, 

 in the spring, with a spring crop of oats or barley, the latter crop 

 being generally preferred in the case, as tending to keep the land 

 more open. 



The quantity of seed to be sown to an acre differs very much 

 with different individuals. At Teddesley Park, Staffordshire, 

 where one hundred acres are annually sown with Italian rye 

 grass, three bushels per acre are sown with some clover. Where 

 land is laid down to be kept in grass four or five years, the fol 

 lowing proportions of different grasses are prescribed : red 

 clover, twelve pounds; trefoil, four pounds; white, six pounds: 

 rib grass, or narrow-leaved plantain, two pounds ; and two pecks 

 of perennial rye grass. I feel a good deal of diffidence in giving 

 these quantities, as the practice of different farmers is so various. 



* Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis. 



