GR A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



G R A 



641 



of the purer sorts of grass-seeds, we would recommend 

 those who will not, or cannot, make that profitable experi- 

 ment, which we have endeavoured to describe in the former 

 part of this article, to set some of those upland pastures, 

 which are least infested with weeds, and afford the sweetest 

 herbage, aside to stand for seeds; and although, by so doing, 

 the hay will be less valuable, yet from the sale of the seeds, 

 it may answer better to the possessor, than to mow it merely 

 for the hay; for any gentleman, who has regard to the beauty 

 of his land, had better pay six times the price for even such 

 seeds as these, rather than purchase the ordinary sort ; for 

 the first cost of seeds is not to be put in competition with the 

 beauty and advantage of having such as are good ; which, 

 when the land is brought to a good sward, which may be 

 done in one year, where it is properly prepared and sown, may 

 be easily kept in good order, and annually improved by good 

 management, so as to last as long as that good management 

 continues. Forty years ago, some land was sown in the fol- 

 lowing manner, and affords to this day the most excellent 

 pasture. It abounded with many bad weeds, so that it be- 

 came necessary to give a summer and winter's fallow; during 

 which, it was five times ploughed, and ten times harrowed, 

 to destroy the weeds, and make the surface of the ground 

 fine. In August, it was sown with the best grass-seeds that 

 could be procured, three bushels of which, with nine pounds 

 of the white Dutch Clover-seeds, were allowed to each acre: 

 as there happened rains soon after the seed was sown, the 

 grass came up well, but mixed with a great number of weeds : 

 it was afterwards rolled ; and that summer, there was more 

 than two tons of hay per acre mowed off the land ; and by 

 constant weeding twice a year, sweeping it with a bush har- 

 row, rolling and dressing of the land, the grass has been 

 since greatly improved, and is now as good a pasture as any 

 in England. Large tracts of land laid down in the same 

 manner have succeeded equally well; so that many years' 

 experience, upon an extended scale, confirms this to lie the 

 surest means hitherto adopted, for obtaining good pastures. 

 The generality of farmers, to whom this plan is proposed, 

 will object to the first loss of their crop, and also to the after 

 expense of weeding, rolling, &c. as too great for common 

 practice. Long experience, however, on the contrary, tes- 

 tifies, that whoever will be at the expense, will find their ac- 

 count in it ; for the crops of hay will be so much better, and 

 the after-pasture also, that it will more than pay the expense; 

 and the verdure of these pastures is delightful to all those 

 who have any taste for natural beauties. Grass for gardens. 

 The English grass is of so good a quality for walks or grass- 

 plats, that if they be kept in good order, they have that ex- 

 quisite beauty, which exceeds those of France, or any other 

 country. But green walks and green plats are not generally 

 made by sowing the grass-seed, but by laying turfs; and 

 indeed, the turfs from a fine common or down, are, for that 

 purpose, much preferable to sown grass. In sowing a fine 

 green plat, there is a difficulty in getting good seed ; it 

 ought not to be such as is taken out of the hay-loft without 

 distinction ; for that seed shooting too high,' and making 

 large stalks, the lower part will be naked and bare ; and 

 however frequently mowed, will come to nothing but tufts of 

 weeds and quick-grass, very little better than that of the com- 

 mon fields. If walks or plats be made by sowine, the best way 

 is to procure the seed fiom those pastures where the grass 

 is naturally fine and clear, or else the trouble of keeping it 

 from spiry and bent grass will be great, and it will hardly 

 ever look handsome. In order to sow grass-seed, the ground 

 must be first dug or broken up with a spade ; and when 

 it has been dressed and laid even, it must be very finely 

 VOL. i. 54. 



raked over, and all the clods and stones taken off, and co- 

 vered over an inch thick with good mould, to facilitate the 

 growth of the seed ; this being done, the seed is to be 

 thrown pretty thick, that it may come up close and short; 

 and it must be raked over again, to bury and cover the seed, 

 that if the weather should happen to be windy, it may not be 

 blown away. As to the season of sowing grass, the middle 

 or latter end of August is a good time, because the seed na- 

 turally requires nothing but moisture to make it grow; if it 

 be not sown til! the latter end of February, or the beginning 

 of March, if the weather prove dry, it will not so soon 

 make the walks or quarters green. It is also best to sow it 

 in a mild day, and inclining to rain ; for that, by sinking 

 down the seed in the earth, will cause it to shoot the sooner. 

 But where grass is sown in gardens, either for lawns or walks, 

 there should always be a good quantity of the White Trefoil, 

 or Dutch Clover, sown with it; for this will make a fine turf, 

 much sooner than any other sown grass, and will retain a 

 better verdure than any of the grass tribe. After the seed is 

 well come up, and the grass is very thick, and of a beautiful 

 green, it will require a constant care to keep in order: this 

 consists in mowing the grass often, for the oftener it is mow- 

 ed, the thicker and handsomer it grows; it must also be 

 rolled with a cylinder, or roller of wood, to level it as much 

 as possible. If grass be neglected, it will run into quick- 

 grass and weeds, and then the only way to recover it, is 

 either by sowing it, or laying it over again, and that once in 

 every two years; but if the ground lie well cleared from the 

 roots of strong weeds, and the turf taken from a fine level 

 common, it will continue handsome for several years, pro- 

 vided it be well kept. In order to keep grass-plats or walks 

 handsome, and in good order in autumn, you may sow some 

 fresh seeds over any places that are not well filled, or where 

 the grass is dead, to renew and furnish them again; but 

 there is nothing which so much improves grass, as the con- 

 stantly rolling and polling it, to destroy worm-casts, and re- 

 fine the turf. It is a general practice, when turf is laid in 

 gardens, to cover the surface of the ground under the turf, 

 either with sand or very poor earth; the design of which is, 

 to keep the grass fine, by preventing its growing too rank. 

 This is proper enough for very rich ground, but it is not so 

 for such ground as is middling or poor; for the grass will 

 soon wear out, and decay in patches. When turf is taken 

 from a common or down, there should be regard had to the 

 cleanliness of it; such as is full of weeds should be rejected, 

 for it will be a very tedious task to weed them out after the 

 turf is laid ; and unless this be done, the grass will never 

 appear handsome. Where turf is designed to remain for 

 years, without renewing, there should be a dressing laid 

 upon it every other year, either of very rotten dung, ashes, 

 or, where it can be easily procured, very rotten tan. These 

 dressings should be laid on early in winter, that the rain may 

 wash them into the ground before the drought of the spring 

 comes on ; otherwise they will occasion the grass to turn 

 when the warmth of summer begins. Where grass is well 

 dressed, and kept well rolled and mowed, it may be kept 

 very beautiful for many years; but where it is neither dressed 

 nor fed with sheep, it will rarely continue handsome more 



than eight or ten years. The grasses so extensively useful 



in rural economy, are chiefly to be found in the second order 

 of the third class, Triandria Digynia, in the Linnean system. 

 However numerous and distinct from each other they may 

 be, they generally agree in the following particulars, which 

 form, when taken together, the natural character of this tribe 

 or family. The calix is a glume or chaff, in most species, 

 composed of two valves, one larger and gibbous, the Other 

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