618 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



It 



SuBSECT. 1 . Of tall or Hay Grasses of temporary Duration. 



5093. The most valuable of this division are the biennial, or, as it is commonly but 

 erroneously called, the annual and subper- 

 ennial rye-grass (Jig. 580 a) the cock's-foot 

 grass (ij, and woolly soft grass (c). Where 

 a crop of hay is desired within the year, it is 

 necessary to resort to such grasses as are an- 

 nuals in the strict sense of the word, and 

 none can be better for this purpose than the 

 common oat, cut and made into hay when it 

 comes into flower. Next in order may be 

 mentioned the other cereal grasses and the 

 annual varieties of bromus : the latter, how- 

 ever, are very coarse grasses, though prolific 

 in culm. 



5094. The biennial rye-grass {Loliumper- 

 enne, var. biennis, L.j is well known, as 

 being universally sown, either with or with- 

 out clover, among corn crops, with a view to one crop of hay the succeeding season, 

 attains a greater height, and produces a longer, broader spike of flowers, than the perennial 

 rye-grass, and the produce in hay is considered greater than that of any other annual 

 grass, equally palateable to cattle. It prefers a rich loamy soil, but will grow on any 

 surface whatever, not rock or undecayed bog. 



5095. The perennial rye-grass (LoHum perenne, L. Ivraie vivace, Fr. ; JDaurende 

 Lolche, Ger. ; ^nd Loglio vivace, Ital. ) differs from the other in being of somewhat 

 smaller growth, and in abiding for several years, according to the variety and the soil and 

 cultur.e. Many consider this grass coarse, benty, and very exhausting to the soil; but 

 after all the .experiments that have been made on the other grasses, none have been found 

 to equal it for a course of mowing and pasturing for two, three, or seven years. It is 

 sown in Italy, and especially in Lombardy, and also in France and Germany, along 

 with cloyer, for the same purposes as in this country; and, as Von Thaer has re- 

 marked, though some have tried other species, both in these countries and in England, 

 they have in the end returned to rye-grass. When intended as a pasture-grass, if 

 stocked hard, and when for hay, if mo.wn early^ the objections to it are removed. ( Code 

 of Agriculture.) G. Sinclair says the circumstance of its producing abundance of seed, 

 which is easily collected, and vegetates freely on any soil, its early perfection and 

 abundant herbage the first year, which is much relished by cattle, are the merits which 

 have upheld it to the present day, and will probably for some time to come continue it a 

 favorite grass among farmers. But the lattermath is inconsiderable, the plant impo- 

 verishes the soil in a high degree if not cut before the seed ripens. When this is 

 neglected, the field after midsunamer exhibits only a brown surface of withered straws. 

 XiCt the pji-oduce and nutritive powers of rye-grass be compared with those of the cock's- 

 foot-grass, ^nd it will be found inferior nearly in the proportion of 5 to 18 ; to meadow 

 fox-tail of 5 to 12 j and to meadow fescue of 5 to 17. {Hort. Gram. Wob. 2d edit. 215. 

 .and see 5100.) In a subsequent page he observes, " The new varieties, however, of 

 this species of grass, which have been discovered of late years, remove in a considerable 

 degree the serious objections which applied to the common rye-grass" (/6. 412.) The 

 Varieties alluded to are all perennial, and as under : 



1 dry imjioverished pasture land. 

 . '-arass, found in rich soils, 1 

 .M.ider grass, and chiefly in beaten parts, as cart-ways, &c. 



Slender rye-frrass, common ; 



Catnpmind ur broad spiked^ye-groig, found in rich soils, lone 

 ler grass, and chiefly in beaten parts, as cart- ways, &c. It 

 i a short broad spike, crowded with spikelets at the top. 

 Pacey's rye-grass, fotind in rich meadow lands, and intro- 

 iduced by Pacey, a cultivator in the uplands of Stattbrdshire : 

 spike nearly upright, spikelets shorter than in the compound 

 r. g. the stem fumiithed with long leaves, and the root leaves 

 arge and numerous. Sinclair considers this the most valuable 

 Tariety of the ryegrass. 



fVhttn/orth'a rye-f[tass, introduced by G. Whitworth, Esq. 



of Acre House, Lincolnshire, an eminent cultivator of the 

 Fascua gramina, who, in 1825, .had 60 varieties of Lolium 

 perenne under experiment. 



Stickney's rye-i^ras,s, introduced by Sticknev of Holdemess. 



RtisseP's rye-grass, first cultivated by thelate B. Holditch, Esq. 

 Editor of The Farmer's Journal, from seed obtained of a plant 

 in a rich fen pasture, pointed out to Holditch by the Duke of 

 Bedford. 



Church bennet, or Church bent-grass, an excellent variety 

 of rye-grass, cjiltivated in some parts of Berkshire. 



All rthe above, excepting the two first, are ex;ellent varieties. Pacey's and Russel's 

 are considered the best. 



5096. The vroportipnal value which the grass at the time of flowering bears to that at tjie time the seed 

 is ripe, is as 10 to 11. The proportional value which the grass of the lattermath bears to that at the time 

 of flowering, is as 4 to 10, and to that at the time the seed is ripe, as 4 to 11. 



5097. The seed of perennial rye-grass is not to be distinguished froni;that of the annual variety. It may 

 be collected by hand, in most parts of Britain, from old pastures, and a, considerable quantity is annually so 

 got in Kent and Sussex. It i$ also grown purposely for seed in England and Scotland. Formerly it was the 

 practice for farmers to collect the seed which dropped from the,hay used by their horses; but rye-grass, 

 grown for hay, is now cut by all judicious farmers, when it is just coming into flower ; and therefore to 

 collect the glumes or empty husks can be of no use as seod. It has also been a common practice, in regard 

 to rye-grass, to let the mixed crcp of that and clover stand till the seeds of the former have attained a con- 

 eiderable degree of ripeness, wnbn it is cut down and made into hay, in the usual manner ; and the seeds 

 of the rye-grass are separated by the use of the flail, commonly before the hay is put into the field-ricks. 

 Sometimes, when but a spiall quantity is wanted, the hay is merely shaken well upon a cloth, when it is 



