ya7i. lo, 1889] 



NATURE 



261 



]). 224), in what a marvellous manner the development of the 

 .liypophysis cerebri of Vertebrates, with its oral and neural por- 

 Itions, accords with the development of the permanent cesopha- 

 [gus and its special nervous system in Annelids. I now submit 

 some no less striking resemblances between the two groups ; and 

 I am of opinion that we may hope, with work and increasing 

 knowledge, to encounter many more such, as yet undreamt of. 



J. Beard. 

 .\natomisches Institut, Freiburg i/B., September 21. 



THE rOURNAL OF THE ROYAL 

 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 TT is seldom that the Journal of an important Society so 

 -*• abounds with obituary notices of prominent contributors as 

 the one now before us. The sad refrain of " /« Memoriam" 

 runs through but too many of the closing pages of the number, 

 ' in affectionate remembrance of names which have been asso- 

 ciated with the advancement of agricultural knowledge through- 

 out a considerable part of this century. The late Charles 

 Randell, of Chadbury, was essentially a farmer of the widest 

 views and experience, and full of sympathy for scientific work. 

 The late John Chalmers Morton, the late John Algernon Clarke, 

 and the late John Coleman ranked among the most distinguished 

 ornaments of the literary aspect of agriculture. The editor, 

 remarking upon these losses, says: "It is a noteworthy but 

 melancholy circumstance that, in the short space of six months, 

 the three leading professional writers on agricultural subjects 

 should have been gathered in by the Great Harvester." We 

 should be wanting in respect to pass over unnoticed these 

 bereavements, and when we call to mind the very recent deaths 

 of Dr. Voelcker and Mr. H. M. Jenkins, the late secretary and 

 editor, we must admit that this Society has sustained exceptionally 

 heavy losses. 



The present number, however, bears witness to the fact that 

 able successors are to be found to carry on the good work of 

 the Society, and that, as the veterans pass away, young and 

 enthusiastic labourers step into their places. 



As usual, the material of the half-yearly issue may be divided 

 into official Reports and articles by unattached contributors. The 

 first section includes the Reports on the farm prize competition 

 in Northumberland ; on the implements, live stock, and poultry 

 at the Nottingham meeting of last summer ; on horse-shoeing, 

 followed by an able paper on the structure of the horse's foot 

 by Prof. G. T. Brown, C.B. ; and on the Newcastle (1887) 

 engine trials, by the Consulting Engineer to the Society. These 

 Reports we cannot do more than notice as well worth the 

 attention both of mature agriculturists and students of the art. 

 The remaining portion of the volume contains articles upon 

 the principles of forestry, farming in the Channel Islands, the 

 l)ropagation and prevention of smut in oats and barley, and 

 various papers on stock-feeding and crop-growing. 



None of these papers will create more interest than that upon the 

 herbage of old grass- land, by Dr. W. Fream, and this paper stands 

 prominently forward as the only one which may be described as 

 an original investigation. The question is not only important, 

 but controversial. The best way of producing that inimitable 

 natural product, a rich pasture, has long been a subject of vital 

 interest to landowners. In the long period of agricultural de- 

 pression, grass-lands have scarcely shared in the general depre- 

 ciation of values. Good grass-land will always let, and it is 

 likely to maintain its value. The difficulty of converting tillage 

 land into grass has always, however, been a problem hard of 

 solution, and anyone who throws light upon this question is 

 deserving of gratitude. 



One of the chief difficulties has consisted in ascertaining the 

 proper descriptions of seeds for producing a permanent pasture, 

 and a great deal of discussion has taken place upon the relative 

 merits and demerits of the members of the large family of the 

 Graniinecc, as well as of the Leguminosce, composing the complex 

 herbage of a good meadow or pasture. Certain grasses have 

 been named as especially suitable, while others, although occur- 

 ring in all pastures, have been condemned as worse than useless. 

 On the other hand, it has been freely asserted that many of our 

 best grazing-lands are largely composed of grasses which have 

 been stigmatized as worthless by certain authorities, and the 

 inspection of high-class pastures has often staggered the botanist 

 by the perverseness with which which they carried the " wrong " 

 descriptions of grasses, and nevertheless held their own as pro- 

 <lucers of valued hay, or, if grazed, of beef, mutton, and milk. 

 ' Second Series, vol. xxiv. Part i. (London: John Murray, i838.) 



One of the most maligned of the grasses of late years has 

 been common rye-grass. This grass, although popular with 

 farmers, was stigmatized by Mr. Faunce de Laune, in an able 

 paper published a few years ago, as a short-lived and inferior 

 grass, foisted upon the farmers by seedsmen because of its cheap- 

 ness and the ease with which it germinated and covered the ground . 

 Mr. Faunce de Laune ruined rye-grass, his views being some- 

 what too precipitately indorsed by the officers of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, and the seed trade was ruled into unwilling 

 obedience. Rye-grass was banished from all mixtures sown by 

 truly enterprising and advanced agriculturists, but its use still 

 lingered among the less scientific but more practical members of 

 the confraternity of farmers. 



In spite of this crusade against rye-grass, many observing and 

 scientific agriculturists were in doubt, especially as rye-grass was 

 seen to occupy a leading position in all natural pastures, and 

 hence its evanescent or short-lived character was doubted. 



Prof. Fream, partly from a desire to test the true value of rye- 

 grass, but also with a view to investigating the botanical com- 

 position of good grass-land, put himself in communication with 

 a number of experienced agriculturists in England and Ireland, 

 and with their co-operation transplanted twenty-five represen- 

 tative so4s, 2 feet long, i foot broad, and 9 inches deep, from as 

 many pastures, and planted them side by side in a bed 72 feet 

 long and 6 feet wide in the Botanical Garden of the College of 

 Agriculture, Downton. This transplantation was accomplished 

 in the winter and spring of 1887-88. 



In the month of July the herbage of each turf was cut, and 

 submitted to a quantitative botanical examination, with very 

 interesting and surprising results. In the first place, these 

 samples of pastures, brought from twelve English and eight 

 Irish counties, gave evidence that the preponderance of their 

 herbage was composed of two plants, one being the maligned 

 and tabooed perennial rye-grass {Lolium perenne), and the 

 other chief constituent being common white clover {Trifolium 

 repens). As each of the twenty-five sods was selected from the 

 best grass-land of its district by resident agriculturists of well- 

 known judgment, the case appears to be conclusive in favour of 

 the recently, but only recently, discarded grass. The actual 

 fact is that rye-grass constituted in the various plots high per- 

 centages of the total gramineous herbage, as the following 

 figures show : — No. I turf (Wainfleet), 75 per cent. ; No. 2 turf 

 (Tenterden), 90 per cent. ; No. 3 turf (Sherborne), 76 per cent. ; 

 No. 4 turf (Sherborne), 77 per cent. ; No. 5 turf (Somerset), 

 82 per cent. ; No. 6 turf (Derbyshire), 18 per cent. ; No. 7 turf 

 (Somerset), 90 per cent. ; No. 8 turf (Tipperary), 66 per cent. ; 

 No. 10 turf, 78 per cent. ; No. 11 turf, 83 per cent. ; No. 12 

 turf, 90 per cent. It is needless to continue this list, and it 

 is sufficient to say that, with very trifling exceptions, these 

 important turfs unanimously showed themselves in favour of 

 rye-grass ; in fact, this species heads the list in 21 out of the 

 25 cases. 



Similarly, the leguminous herbage was found to contain one 

 constituent in paramount abundance — namely, white clover ; 

 so that it may be approximately stated that, while the grassy 

 herbage was chiefly composed of rye-grass, the leguminous 

 herbage was chiefly composed of white Dutch clover. In one 

 case — that of a turf sent by Sir Louis T. Delcomyn, of the Old 

 Court, Bradwardine, Herefordshire — rye-grass and white clover 

 composed the entire herbage, without the intervention of 

 another plant of any kind whatsoever. 



A more crushing piece of evidence against the enemies of 

 perennial rye-grass could not well have been produced, and the 

 farmer will once more be justified for his slowness in accepting 

 the dicta of some of his would-be teachers. The case is of such 

 practical importance that we have dealt with it at some length ; 

 and it should be added that the percentage botanical composition 

 of the gramineous herbage of each turf is given in detail, so 

 that the labour involved must have been very great. 



Prof. Curtis, in a useful paper upon Forestry, deprecates the 

 founding of a School of Forestry, but recommends the formation 

 of a representative Board of Examiners in Forestry on the lines 

 proposed by Mr. Rogers, of the Surveyors' Institution, and 

 Colonel Pearson, to the Select Committee on Forestry. The 

 Report on the Farm Prize Competition is of value for compara- 

 tive purposes, chiefly as showing the amounts expended by good 

 farmers upon fertilizers and feeding-stuffs, and the different 

 practices obtaining in the locality where the competition took 

 place. The remaining papers we cannot at present notice 

 particularly, but have indicated their presence. 



