820 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



5141. Of pasture grasses for inferior soils and upland situations, one of the principal 

 is the festuca ovina, ^ * " 



or sheep's fescue 

 grass {Jig. 585 a) 

 This grass is pecu- 

 liarly adapted for 

 hilly sheep pastures. 

 It is a very dwarf 

 grass, but relished 

 by all kinds of cat- 

 tle. According to 

 Sinclair's experi- 

 ence, " on dry soils; 



that are incapable 



of producing the 



larger sorts, this 



should form the 



principal crop, or rather the whole ; for it is "seldom or ever, in its natural state, found 



intimately mixed with others, but by itself. 



5142. The Poa alpina (b), Alopecurus alpinus, and Aira ccespitosa (c), Briza media 

 (d), and minima, and Agrustis Immilis and vulgaris, are all dwarf mountain grasses, 

 well adapted for hilly parks or lawns. 



5143. On the culture of these grasses it is unnecessary to enlarge, as it must obviously be the same a 

 that of rye-grass or any of the others. The chief difficulty is to get the seed in sufficient quantity, for 

 which a good mode is to contract with a seedsman for the quantity wanted a year before hand. With aH 

 the pasture grasses, excepting the last class, we should recommend at least half the seed used to be that 

 of the perennial rye-grass ; and we think it should also form a ccfnsiderable part of the seeds used in laying 

 down all meadows, excepting those for the aquatic or stoloniferous grasses. These, if they thrive, are 

 sure to choak and destroy it, and therefore neither rye-grass, or any other grass, should ever be sown with 

 Timothy grass or fiorin, 



5144. The formation of grassy surfaces by distributing ^neces of turf over them, has long 

 been practised in gardening, in levelling down raised, or filling up hollow fences, and in 

 other cases of partially altering a grassy surface ; it is said to have been first used in 

 agriculture by Whitworth, of Acre-house, Lincolnshire, and in 1812 it was brought 

 forward on a large scale by John Blomfield, of Warham, in Norfolk, a tenant of Coke's. 

 Blomfield planted eleven acres in this way. An account of the process, which is styled 

 transplanting turf, or inoculating land with grass, has been published by Francis Blaikie, 

 Coke's steward. [On the Conversion of Arable Land into Pasture, 12mo. 1817.) 



5145. An abstract of the process of transplanting turf, and an opinion on it, are thus given in The Code o 

 Agriculture. A piece of good, clean, sweet old turf, which ought principally to consist of fibrous rooted 

 plants, is cut into small pieces of about three inches square, and placed about six inches apart on the 

 surface of ground pressed for that purpose. In this way one acre of turf will plant nine acres of arable land. 

 The pieces of flag should be carefully placed with the grass side uppermost, and the plants pressed well into 

 the ground. No more turf should be cut, carried, and spread in any one day than is likely to be planted 

 before night. If the transplanted turf is found deficiei?t in any particular species of favorite plants, a 

 white clover, permanent red clover, &c. the seeds of those plants should be sown upon the young pasture 

 in April When the ground is in proper temper (between wet and dry) the pasture should be frequently 

 well pressed down by heavy rollers, which will cause the plants to extend themselves along the ground 

 rather than rise into tufts, which otherwise they would be apt to do. No stock should be permitted to 

 feed upon the transplanted pasture in the first spring or summer, nor until the grasses have perfected and 

 shed their seeds. Indeed the pasturing should be very moderate until the mother grass-plants and their 

 young progeny have united and formed a compact turf. The expense of this operation is about 9.1. 10*. 



Eer statute acre ; without making any allowance for the charges incurred by summer fallowing the arable 

 md on which the turf has been transplanted ; nor for the year's rent, poor's rates, and taxes for that 

 ?ear ; nor for restoring the land whence the turf plants were taken, to its previous state. This plan seems 

 o be well calculated to promote the improvement of light soils, not naturally of a grassy nature, for the 

 grasses and their roots being once formed on a rich soil, will probably thrive afterwards even on a poor 

 one, as they will derive a considerable proportion of their nourishment from the atmosphere. For light 

 and gravelly soils, therefore, where permanent pasture is desirable, the plan cannot be too strongly re- 

 commended ; and if it were found to answer on peat, after the surface was pared for the reception of 

 the plants, and burnt to promote their growth, it would be a most valuable acquisition to sheep farmers 

 m many districts of the country. Thus far Sir John Sinclair, but from facts related by Sinclair of 

 Wobtirn, it appears to be a plan of little or no merit, only brought into notice by its novelty. {^H. G. 

 Wob. 2d edit. 420, 421.) 



Sect. III. General View of the Produce, Uses, Character, and Value of the principal 

 British Grasses, according to the result of John Duke of Bedford's Exjyeriments at Woburn. 

 5146. In all permanent ])astures, Sir H. Davy observes, nature has provided a mixture 

 of Various grasses, the produce of which differs at different seasons, "^here pastures 

 are to be made artificially, such a mixture ought to be imitated ; and, perhaps, pastures 

 superior to the natural ones may be made by selecting due proportions of those species 

 of grasses fitted for the soil, which afford respectively the greatest quantities of spring, 

 summer, lattermath, and winter produce ; a reference to the results of the Woburn 

 experiments, he adds, will show that such a plan of cultivation is very practicable. 



5147. The manner in which these experiments were conducted is thus described. " Spots of ground, each 

 containiijig four square feet, in the garden at Woburn Abbey, were enclosed by boards in such a manner 

 that there was no lateral communication between the earth included by the boards, and that of the gar- 

 den. The soil was removed in these enclosures, and new soils supplied j or mixtures of soils were made 



