GR A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



GRA 



639 



good meadow, it must be productive. Cattle have undoubt- 

 edly their particular likings, with respect to food, in which 1 , 

 though we cannot properly judge of it, they should be some- 

 times indulged; but this practice must not be carried too far, 

 for as the farmer cannot afford to feed his ploughmen on 

 sucking pigs and poultry, neither can he generally indulge 

 his cattle with the finer or more delicate hay or herbage. 

 Besides, we do not know but that the most productive 

 grasses may also be the most nutritious, or that cattle will 

 not as eagerly eat the herbage or hay-may of the Meadow 

 Fox-tail grass, as of the fine bent, Ayrostis Capillaris, and Pro- 

 cumbent Trefoil, or Trifolium Procumbens. Moreover, cattle 

 are frequently known to thrive on food to which they are 

 habituated by necessity, though, at first, they could scarcely 

 be prevailed on to touch it. Persons, in making experi- 

 ments, are very apt to conclude too hastily from the appear- 

 ance which a plant assumes, on its being first planted or 

 sown: the most insignificant vegetable will often make a 

 great show, when its fibres have i'resh earth to shoot into; 

 but the trial comes, when the object of our experiment has 

 'been in a meadow or pasture several years, when its fibres, 

 from long growth, are matted together, and it meets with 

 powerful neighbours to dispute every inch of ground with it: 

 if it then continue to be productive, it must have merit. We 

 see that Lucern, when left to itself, is soon overpowered ; if 

 we sow Broad-leaved Clover, which is most undoubtedly a 

 perennial, the first year we shall have a great crop of Clover; 

 let this field be left to itself, and the Clover, like the Lucern, 

 will yearly diminish, not because it is a biennial, as some 

 have supposed, but because plants, hardier or more congenial 

 to the soil, usurp its place : this shews then, that at the same 

 time we introduce a good plant, that plant must also be a 

 powerful one, able to keep possession, and continue to be 

 productive. With regard to the second quality, or that of 

 the cattle's thriving on the food they eat ; this is undoubt- 

 edly of great consequence, and it is to be regretted, that our 

 knowledge of the most nutritive herb is so limited : of those 

 plants which have been cultivated, we are able to speak with 

 some certainty ; it is well known, that Clover, Lucern, Saint- 

 foin, Tares, and several other plants, have a tendency to fat- 

 ten cattle ; but what grasses, or other plants, which have not 

 been subjected to a separate cultivation, have this particu- 

 lar tendency, remains to be ascertained by experiment. But 

 as leguminous plants, in general, are found to agree with 

 cattle, we may reasonably conclude, that a certain quantity 

 of them must be proper in pastures. Certain pastures are 

 fouud to be more bateable or feeding than others; but 

 whether this arises from their situation, or their particular 

 produce, remains also to be discovered by further observa- 

 tion. Respecting the third quality, or the early growth of 

 plants, as the farmers and graziers unitedly complain of the 

 want of early herbage in the spring; those plants, therefore, 

 which are found to put forth early foliage, and to be grateful 

 to cattle, are deserving of great attention. As far as grasses 

 are concerned, the Sweet-scented Vernal, the Meadow Fox- 

 tail, the Smooth and Rough-stalked Meadow Grass, will effect 

 all that can be expected from those of British growth ; much, 

 very much, however, will depend on seasons : if the winter 

 be very severe, or north-easterly winds prevail in the spring, 

 grassy herbage will be backward : to counteract the effects of 

 such seasons, our pastures should be warmly situated, not 

 drenched with moisture, sheltered by thick hedges, and 

 divided into small enclosures ; in short, a set of enclosures 

 should be formed for this very purpose, where there is a 

 prospect of its answering the designs of the cultivator. But 

 where early pasturage is the desideratum, other plants, as 



well as grasses, may deserve a place amongst them, as Rib- 

 wort or Rib-grass, Plantayo Lanccutata, Dandelion, Lcontodon 

 Taraxacum, Broad-leaved Clover, Trifolium Pratense, with 

 many others of the same kind. And as an early herbage, 

 though it be valuable for pasturage, is no less so for hay; by 

 the middle of May at farthest, a meadow of this sort would 

 be fit for mowing, and the second hay-making tnig-ht com- 

 mence by the time that hay-making usually takes place in the 

 country. We have sometimes thbught, but perhaps the idea 

 is too speculative, that we ought to have 'two sorts of mea- 

 dow, one for hay, the other for pasture; that our hay mea- 

 dow should consist entirely of grasses, and chiefly for this 

 reason, that the hay would thereby be much sooner made, 

 which is an object of consequence at all times, but particu- 

 larly when the process commences in May. In June and 

 July, the more powerful heat of the sun is able to extricate 

 the thick leaves and stalks of the more succulent plants ; but 

 in the necessary prolongation of this business, the grasses 

 must materially suffer. But for the purpose of pasturagte, 

 the fanner should be chiefly directed to such sorts of grasses 

 as have the propensity of running to leaves, in preference to 

 such as abound more in flower-stalks or stems. Experiment 

 has proved, that extraordinary fertility arises from unusual 

 circumstances concurring and favouring, in an uncommon 

 degree, the growth of various grasses ; consequently, in the 

 forming and improving of grass lands, the most certain plan 

 will be to cultivate the seeds of such grasses as may be most 

 adapted to them, and afterwards sow them at proper seasons 

 upon the lands, when they have been put into a condition 

 suitable for their reception. The directions given for culti- 

 vating, and collecting the seeds of various grasses that have 

 been found to be very productive, are as follows. If a piece 

 of ground, which is neither very moist nor very dry, can be 

 procured, it will answer for all the seeds ; they may then be 

 sown on one spot; but if such a piece cannot be obtained, 

 they must be sown on separate spots, according to their re- 

 spective qualities, no matter whether in a garden, a nursery, 

 or a field, provided it be well secured and clean. Dig up 

 the ground, level and' rake it, then sow each kind of seeds 

 thinly in a separate row, each row nine or twelve inches 

 apart, and cover them over lightly with the earth ; the latter 

 end of August, or the beginning of September, will be the 

 most proper time for this business. If the weather be not 

 unusually dry, the seeds will soon vegetate ; and the only 

 attention they will require, will be careful weeding : in about 

 a fortnight after their coming up, such of the plants as grow' 

 thickly together may be thinned, and those which are taken 

 up transplanted, so as to make more rows of the same 

 grass. If the winter should be very severe, though natives, 

 yet as seedlings they may receive injury ; therefore it will 

 not be amiss to protect them with mats, fern, or by some 

 other contrivance. Advantage should also be taken of the 

 first dry weather in the spring, to roll or tread them down, 

 in order to fasten their roots in the earth, which the frost 

 generally loosens : care must still be taken to keep them per- 

 fectly clear from weeds. As the spring advances, many of 

 them will throw up their flowering-stems, and some of them 

 will continue to do so all the summer. As the seed in each 

 spike or panicle ripens, it must be carefully gathered, and sown 

 in the autumn ; at which time, the roots of the original plants, 

 which will now bear separating, should be divided and trans- 

 planted, so as to form more rows ; the roots of the Smooth- 

 stalked Meadow Grass, in particular, creeping like couch- 

 grass, may readily be increased in this way; and thus, by 

 degrees, a large plantation of these grasses may be formed, 

 and much seed collected for the farmer's use. But a more 



