AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 165 



soil, thus destroying it. When not allowed to be pastured, it is very 

 luxuriant, and makes excellent hay, generally seeding twice a year in 

 this latitude. We are inclined to believe that the common and the an 

 nual species, have often been sold for the Italian in the United States , 

 and indeed, it is said that it can only be procured pure from a few- 

 great seed-dealers in England. In that country, it is usually sown with 

 red clover, at the rate of 1 to 3 bushels of grass seed, and 8 to 16 Ibs., of 

 clover seed to the acre. (See Patent Office Reports, 1845, pp. 373, 376 ; 

 1846, p. 258.) 



(/) Is more used in Great Britain for meadows on all kinds of soil, 

 and mixed with other grasses in pastures, than any other species; (&,) 

 resembles it in all respects with the exception that it is an annual, and 

 therefore used in rotations, where one year s grass only is required. 

 Experience has given them a very high leputation, and late analyses, it 

 is said, have proved them to be the most nutritive of grasses. They 

 are generally sown with the clovers at the same rate as the previous one 

 (). They would be found highly profitable in the wheat soils of Mich 

 igan to sow with clover ; the clover not being diminished in quantity, 

 while this excellent grass is added to it. They are gradual!} finding 

 their way into favor in the Atlantic States, though their appearance, 

 compared with Timothy is unfavorable to them. There are several im 

 proved varieties, as Pacey s, Sticknty s, fiussel s, &c. A late writer in 

 the Journal of the Highland Agricul. Society, (October, 1853, p. Ill,) 

 mentions the following objections to the Perennial Rye grass, (j) &quot;Its 

 growth is much stunted by being cropped or cut over ; it is impatient of 

 drought ; it throws out few roots or radicle leaves ; it covers the land dur 

 ing summer with dry innutritions herbage.&quot; These objections, which 

 are probably exaggerated, do not apply to the Italian species. 



(I,) Is chiefly valuable as pasture, the leaf being short, and the rich 

 perfume being lost when the grass is ripe or dried. It is to this that 

 the English meadows owe their well known odor ; and the butter made 

 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, (where this grass has long been 

 naturalized,) its excellent flavor. It prospeis well in the neighbor 

 hood of Detroit, though it is a native of Great Britain. It is there con 

 sidered the earliest of all the grasses, and succeeds best in moist locali 

 ties, such as rich deep loams, but not in wet soils. Its owes its peculiar 

 scent to an aromatic essential oil of which benzoic acid is the base. The 

 same flavor may be imparted to butter, by giving the cows 20 to 30 

 grains of Benzoin twice a day, previously dissolved in hot water, and 

 mixed with meal. This should constitute a part of all mixtures of grass 

 seeds, intended for permament pastures. The seed is difficult to pro- 



