Book VI. HAY GRASSES. 819 



building in the stack-yard ; or afterwards in the stable-loft, before it is put into the horse's racks. But in 

 all of these methods, in order to obtain good seed, the clover must remain uncut beyond the proper season 

 and it is thus materially injured in quality, while the value of the rye-grass seed, in such a crop, is merely 

 a secondary consideration. 



5098. When seed is the principal object of the culture of rye-grass, it ought not to be mixed with clover at 

 all, though it may be sown along with any of the kinds of corn, and treated the year after in every respect 

 as a crop of corn ; bound up in sheaves, built in stacks, threshed with the flail, and dressed by the winnowing- 

 machine in the same manner. 



5099. The difficulty of distinguishin/r between the annual and perennial varieties of rye-grass has ]ed to 

 the practice, in some places, of cutting or pasturing the first year's crop, and taking a crop for seed the 

 second year. If the growth of the rye-grass plants be close and vigorous the second year, there is reason 

 to be satisfied that the seed is of the perennial variety ; and though red clover has been sown with the rye- 

 grass, a great part of it disappears by that time, and forms but a small portion of the second year's cutting. 

 (Sup. Encyc. B?-it. art. Agr.) 



5100. The code' s-f oat grass (Dacti/lis glomerata, L. Jig. 580 b) is an imperfect peren- 

 nial, and grows naturally on dry sandy soils. This grass may be known by its coarse ap- 

 pearance, both of the leaf and spike, and also by its whitish green hue. One writer says, 

 he has cultivated it largely and to his satisfaction on wet loams on a clay marl bottom, upon 

 which the finer grasses are apt to give way in a few years to the indigenous produce. If 

 suffered to rise high, it is very coarse ; but fed close, is a very valuable sheep pasture. 

 He has sown two bushels an acre, and 10 lbs. Common red clover; and when the clover 

 vrears out, the grass fills the lands and abides well in it. It grows well in winter. It has 

 been found highly useful as an early sheep feed. It is early, hardy, and productive, but 

 is a coarser plant than rye-grass, and requires even greater attention in regard to being cut 

 soon, or fed close. It does best by itself, and the time of its ripening being different 

 from that of clover, it does not suit well to be mixed with that plant. The pasturage it 

 affords is luxuriant, and particularly agreeable to sheep. It is cultivated to a great ex- 

 tent, and with astonishing success at Holkham. The quantity of sheep kept upon it, 

 summer and winter, is quite surprising ; and the land becomes renovated by laying two or 

 three years under this grass, and enriched by the manure derived from the sheep. A field, 

 in the park at Woburn, was laid down in two equal parts, one part with rye-grass and white 

 clover, and the other part with cock's-foot and red clover: from the spring till midsummer, 

 the sheep kept almost constantly on the rye-grass; but after that time they left it, and 

 adhered with equal constancy to the cock's-foot during the remainder of the season. In 

 The Code of Agriculture, (p. 497. third edit.) it is stated that Sinclair, of Woburn, con- 

 siders " no grass so well suited for all purposes as cock's-foot ;" and in the second edition 

 of H. Gramineus Wobumensis, it is observed, that if one species only is thought prefer- 

 able to another in the alternate husbandry, that species is the Dactylis glomerata, from its 

 more numerous merits. But a certain supply of the most nutritious herbage throughout 

 the season will be in vain looked for from any one species of grass, but only where 

 nature has provided it in a combination of many. None appear better fitted for mixing 

 with Dactylis than Festuca duriuscula and pratensis, Poa trivialis, Holcus avenaceus, 

 Phleum pratense, Lolium perenne, and white clover. " A combination thus formed, 

 of three parts cock's-foot, and. one part of these species just mentioned, will secure the 

 most productive and nutritive pasture in alternation with grain crops, on soils of the best 

 quality ; and even on soils of an inferior nature, under the circumstances of unfavorable 

 seasons, will afford nutritive herbage, when otherwise the land would have been com- 

 paratively devoid of it, if one species of grass only had been employed." (^Hort. Granu 

 Wob. 2d 'edit. 414.) 



5101. The proportional value which the grass at the time of flowering bears to that at the time the seed 

 is ripe, in as 5 to 7 nearly. The proportional value which the grass of the lattermath bears to that at the 

 time of flowering, is as 6 to 10 ; and to that at the time the seed is ripe, as 6 to 14. J-ixty-four dr. of the straws 

 at the time of flowering aftbrd of nutritive matter 1.2. dr. The leaves or lattermath, and the straws simply, 

 are therefore of equal proportional value ;' a circutnstance which will point out this grass to be more va- 

 luable for permanent pasture than for hay. The above details prove, that a loss of nearly one-third of the 

 value of the crop is sustained, if it is left to the period when the seed is ripe, though the proportional 

 value of the grass at that time is greater, i. e. as 7 to 5. The produce does not increase if the grass is left 

 growing after the period of flowering, but uniformly decreases; and the loss of lattermath, (from 

 the rapid growth of the foliage after the grass is cropped) is very considerable. These circumstances point 

 out the necessity of keeping this grass closely cropped, either with the scythe or cattle, to reap the full 

 benefit of its merits. 



5102. The woolly soft grass (Holcus lanatus, 'L.fig. 580 c) is an imperfect perennial, and rather late flow- 

 ering grass, of a soft unsubstantial appearance, and found chiefly in poor dry soils. It is, however, a very 

 common grass, and grows on all soils, from the richest to the poorest. Itafl^ords abundance of seed 

 which is light, and easily dispersed by the wind. It was cultivated at Woburn on a strong clayey loam' 

 and the proportional value which the grass at the time the seed is rijje, bears to that at the time of 

 flowering, is as 11 to 12. Young, of Essex, observes of this grass, that it flourishes well on any moist soil 

 and should be sown chiefly with a view to sheep, for it is not equally good for other stock : many acres cf 

 it have been cultivated on his farm for sheep, and it has answered greatly when kept close fed. Marshal 

 in his Midland Counties, mentions it as a good grass for cows and other cattle, but bad for horses. In his 

 Rural Economy of Yorkshire, he, however, condemns it in toto. 



51()S. According to Sinclair, of Woburn, " it appears to be generally disliked by all sorts of cattle. 

 The produce is not so great as a view of it in the fields would indicate ; but being left almost entirely 

 untouched by cattle, it appears as the most productive part of the herbage. The hay which is made of 

 it, from the number of downy hairs which cover the surface of the leaves, is soft and spongy, and dis- 

 liked by cattle in general." The Woburn experiments lead to the conclusion that the holcus'mollis is a 

 better hay plant than the species here noticed ; but as that is a more durable pei'ennial it is less fitted for 

 the temporary purposes of the grasses of this section. 



3 G 2 



