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the year, may be more valuable than a grass which 

 yields its produce only in summer, though the whole 

 quantity of food supplied by it should be much less. 



The grasses that propagate themselves by layers, 

 the different species of Agrostis, supply pasture 

 throughout the year ; and, as it has been mentioned 

 on a former occasion, the concrete sap stored up in 

 their joints, renders them a good food even in winter. 

 I saw four square yards of fiorin grass cut in the end 

 of January, this year, in a meadow exclusively appro- 

 priated to cultivation of fiorin, by the Countess of 

 Hardwicke, the soil of which is a damp stiff clay. 

 They afforded 28 pounds of fodder ; of which 1000 

 parts afforded, 64 parts of nutritive matter, consisting 

 nearly of one-sixth of sugar, and five-sixths of mucil- 

 age, with a little extractive matter, In another expe- 

 riment, four square yards gave 27 pounds of grass. 

 The quality of this grass is inferior to that of the fio- 

 rin referred to in the Table, in the latter part of the 

 Third Lecture, which was cultivated by Sir Joseph 

 Banks in Middlesex, in a much richer soil, and cut in 

 December. 



The fiorin grass, to be in perfection, requires a 

 moist climate or a wet soil ; and it grows luxuriantly 

 in cold clays unfitted for other grasses. In light sands 

 and in dry situations its produce is much inferior as 

 to quantity and quality. 



The common grasses, properly so called, that 

 afford most nutritive matter in early spring, are the 

 vernal meadow grass, and meadow foxtail grass ; but 

 their produce at the time of flowering and ripening 



