MEADOW FOXTAIL. 49 



before most other grasses have made appreciable growth. It is 

 useful wherever early pasture or hay is required. 



Agricultural value: If grown for hay it should be cut when in 

 bloom. The stems then contain a great amount of sugar, making 

 the hay sweet and nutritive. After flowering, this sugar is used for 

 the formation of the seed and the feeding value of the hay decreases 

 rapidly. If grown for pasture, Meadow Foxtail furnishes an abun- 

 dance of excellent fodder early in the season when there is nothing 

 else to graze on. All kinds of stock like it. Where the land is suit- 

 able, it is no doubt one of the most valuable grasses. It is prac- 

 tically always grown in a mixture. 



Seed : Meadow Foxtail ripens its seed very quickly but rather 

 unevenly. This makes harvesting comparatively difficult. In many 

 places in Europe the seed is stripped off by hand. Gathered in such 

 a way, it is dried in an airy place and turned daily for about two 

 weeks. If not thus treated, germination will be rather low. Com- 

 mercial seed is generally of low vitality, owing to uneven maturing. 

 To secure a large amount of good seed, cut the crop a little before 

 full maturity, make the sheaves small, stand them nine or ten 

 together in round shocks and leave them to ripen. When grown 

 alone, twenty to twenty-five pounds of seed to the acre are sufficient. 



Good seed is straw-coloured and weighs from six to twelve 

 pounds to the bushel. 



It hath been noted that Seed of a year old is the best, and of two or three years is worse; and 

 that which is more old is quite barren, though (no doubt) some Seeds and Grains last better than 

 others. Bacon, Natural History, 1625. 



There is no storm that may them deface. 

 Nor hail, nor snow, nor wind nor frostes keen. 

 Chaucer, The Flower and the Leaf, 1360. 



Meadow lands should be selected in a rich, or else a moist or well-watered, soil, and care should 

 be taken to draw the rain-water upon them from the highroad. The best method of ensuring a good 

 crop of grass, is first to plough the land, and then to harrow it: but, before passhiK the harrow over 

 it, the ground should be sprinkled with such seed as may have fallen from the hay in the hay-lofts 

 and mangers The land should not be watered, however, the first year, nor should cattle be put to 

 graze upon it before the second hay-harvest, for fear list the blade should be torn up by the roots, 

 or be trodden down and stunted in its growth. Pliny, Natural History, 23-79. 



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