34B O F T H E C U L T U R E PartllT. 



" I am Inclinable to think that the reafon of this plant not fuc- 

 ** ceeding, when it has been fown in England, has either been oc- 

 •' cafioned by the fowing it with corn, with which it will by no 

 •♦ means thrive * (for though the plant be very hardy when grown 

 '* pretty large, yet at its firft coming up, if it be incommoded by 

 " any other plants or weeds, it feldom does w^ell ; therefore it 

 *' fhould always be fown by itfelf, and carefully cleared from 

 " weeds until it has flrength, after which it is not eafily deflroy- 

 *■♦ ed;) or, perhaps, people have fov/n it at a wrong feafon, or in 

 'f wet weather, whereby the feeds have rotted, and never come 

 " up, which hath difcouraged their attempting it again : but how- 

 *' ever the fuccefs has been, I dare aver, that if the method of fow- 

 *' ing or managing of this plant, which is here laid down, be 

 " duely followed, it will be found to thrive as well as any other 

 " fort of fodder now cultivated in England, and will continue much 

 " longer: for if the ground be duly ftirred after the cutting each 

 " crop, and the firft crop fed, as hath been direfted, the plants 

 "will continue in vigour twenty years, or more, without renewing, 

 *' provided they are not permitted to feed, which would weaken, 

 " the roots more than four times cutting would do. 



** The hay of this plant fliould be kept in clofe barns, it being- 

 " too tender to be kept in ricks open to the air as other hay: but 

 *' it will remain good, if well dried before it be carried in, three 

 *' years. The people abroad, reckon an acre of this fodder fuffici- 

 ** ent to keep three horfes all the year round : and I have been af- 

 ** fured by perfons of undoubted credit, who have cultivated this 

 ** plant in England, that three acres of it have fed ten cart horfes 

 *' from the end of April to the beginning of Odober, without any 

 " other food, though they have been conflantly worked. Indeed 

 " the beft ufe that can be made of this grafs is, to cut it, and give 

 •* it green to the cattle. Where this hath been daily pradlifed, I 

 •' have obferved that by the time the field has been cut over, that 

 '* part which was the firft cut, hath been ready to cut again ; icy 

 ** that there has been a conftant fupply in the fame field, from the 

 •' middle of April to the end of October, when the feafon has con- 

 *' tinned long mildj and when the fummers have proved (howery, 

 " I have known fix crops cut in one feafon : but in the dry fea- 

 *' fens there will be always three. When the plant begins to flow- 

 ** er, it lliould then be cut ; for if it ftands longer, the ftalks will 



*' grow 

 * M. Duhamel alfo is sbfolutely againft fowing it with corn, or any other plant. 



