GRASS LANDS. 21 



subject of censure, are frequently such as the 

 fe genius of the soil" and situation render neces- 

 sary, and the experience of years has proved most 

 advantageous. 



Our grass in the pastures of the clay lands, in 

 the mowing season, which, from late feeding in the 

 spring and coldness in the soil, is always late *, 

 presents a curious appearance ; and I should ap- 

 prehend, that a truss of our hay from these dis- 

 tricts, brought into the London market, or exhi- 

 bited as a new article of provender at a Smithfield 

 cattle show, would occasion conversation and com- 

 ment. The crop consists almost entirely of the 

 common field scabious (scabiosa succisa), logger- 

 heads (centauria nigra), and the great ox-eye daisy 

 (chrysanthemum lucanthemum) . There is a scat- 

 tering of bent (ayrostis mdcjaris), and here and 

 there a specimen of the better grasses; but the 

 predominant portion, the staple of the crop, is sca- 

 bious it is emphatically a promiscuous herbage ; 

 yet on this rubbish do the cattle thrive, and from 

 their milk is produced a cheese greatly esteemed 

 for toasting melting, fat, and good flavoured, and, 

 perhaps, inferior to none used for this purpose. 

 The best grasses, indeed, with the exception of the 

 dogstail (cynosurus cristatus), do not delight in 



* In 1826, the herbage on some of our clay lands designed for 

 mowing was, by reason of its tardy growth and the dry ness of the 

 season, in such small quantities, that the owners let it grow un- 

 touched until after the corn harvest, in order to obtain some bottom 

 grass, and, in consequence, our hay-making, as it was called, was 

 not over until the last week in September. 



