HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 141 



The latter-math produce from a clayey loam ii 



dr. qr. Ibs. 



Grass, 12 oz. The produce per acre 8167 8 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 20? 

 The produce of the space, ditto 6 > 



The proportional value of the grass of the latter-math to that at 

 the time of flowering, is as 4 to 3 ; and the crop, at the time the 

 seed is ripe, is to that of the latter-math as 9 to 8. 



The above details clearly shew that there is nearly three-fourths 

 of produce greater from a clayey loam than from a siliceous sandy 

 soil, and that the grass from the latter soil is of comparatively less 

 value, in the proportion of 3 to 2. The culms produced on the 

 sandy soil are deficient in number, and in every respect smaller 

 than those from the clayey loam ; which satisfactorily accounts for 

 the difference in the quantity of nutritive matter afforded by equal 

 quantities of the grass. It is not the strength and rankness of 

 the grass that indicates the fitness of the soil for its growth, but 

 the number and quality of the culms. The proportional value in 

 which the grass of the latter-math exceeds that of the flowering 

 crop is as 4 to 3 ; a difference which appears extraordinary, when 

 the quantity of flowering culms in the flowering crop is considered. 

 In the Anthoxanthum odoratum the proportional difference is still 

 greater, the latter-math being to the flowering crop in nutriment 

 nearly as 9 to 4. In the Poa trivialis they are equal ; but in all 

 the later flowering grasses that have culms resembling those of 

 the meadow-fox tail and sweet-scented vernal, the greater propor- 

 tional value is always, on the contrary, found in the grass of the 

 flowering crop. Whatever the cause may be, it is evident that 

 the loss sustained by taking these grasses at the time of flowering 

 is considerable. In ordinary cases this seldom happens in practice, 

 because these grasses perfect their seed about the season when 

 hay-harvest generally commences, unless where the pasture has 

 been stocked till a late period in the spring, which cannot in this 

 respect be productive of any ultimate advantage, but rather loss. 

 This grass, under the best management, does not attain to its 

 fullest productive powers from seed till four years : hence it is 

 inferior to the cock's-foot grass for the purposes of alternate 

 cropping, and to many other grasses besides. The herbage, how- 

 ever, contains more nutritive matter than that of the cock's-foot, 

 though the weight of grass produced in one season is considerably 



