GRASS. 



GRASS. 



tail-grass, water hair-grass, water meadow- 

 grass, long-leaved cotton-grass, and sheathed 

 cotton-grass. (Hart. Wob. p. 340.) 



4. The grasses of water meadows. "All the 

 superior perennial grasses," observes Sinclair, 

 "thrive under irrigation when the meadow is 

 properly formed ; the following species of 

 grass I have invariably found to constitute the 

 produce of the best water meadows : Meadow 

 foxtail, round-panicled cock's-foot, field brome- 

 grass, meadow fescue : these occupied the 

 crowns and sides of the ridges. The furrows 

 were stocked with the creeping bent, marsh 

 bent, hard fescue, lesser variety of meadow 

 cat's-tail, woolly soft grass, rough-stalked mea- 

 dow-grass, meadow fescue. A small admix- 

 ture of other species were thinly scattered over 

 every part of the ridge ; these were meadow 

 barley, yellow or golden oat, crested dog's-tail, 

 rye-grass, sweet-scented vernal-grass, tufted 

 vetch, with a larger proportion of the tall 

 oat-like soft-grass. The soil of the water 

 meadows which produced the above grasses 

 was either a deep active peat incumbent on 

 a silicious sand, or a sandy loam, on a 

 chalky or gravelly subsoil. In some irrigated 

 meadows, where the ridges were formed 

 nearly flat, and the soil consisted of a sandy 

 loam on a retentive clayey subsoil, the follow- 

 ing grasses constituted the chief produce : 

 Crested dog's-tail, creeping-rooted soft-grass, 

 rye-grass, meadow barley, tall oat-like soft- 

 grass, sweet-scented vernal, and soft brome- 

 grass." (Ibid. p. 383.) 



The grasses best adapted for the alternate 

 husbandry also attracted the attention of George 

 Sinclair; but he saw the difficulty of laying 

 down any systematic rules which should be 

 adapted for all soils and situations, and the 

 demands for animal food : he hardly, therefore, 

 made any very practical general observations. 

 He gives us, however, among other valuable 

 statements, the following little table of the rela- 

 tive value of three of the crops he had ex- 

 amined on similar soil : 



II* per 

 Produce. acre. 



f herbage - - 49,005 



Broad-leaved red clover < hay ... 12,251 



(.nutritive matter 1,901 



(grass - - - 70,785 



Lucern - - . - ^ hay - - - 28,314 



(.nutritive matter I.A59 



(herbage - - 8,848 



Sainfoin - 1 hay ... 3,539 



(.nutritive matter 345 



5. The grasses best adapted for pasture during 

 the winter. In the fourth volume of the Trans, 

 of the High Soc. p. 31, is an essay on this sub- 

 ject by the late Mr. George Sinclair. The fol- 

 lowing are the grasses he recommends as being 

 productive of the most considerable quantity 

 of winter's grass; and the proportion of seeds 

 which he advises to be sown to produce such 

 a pasture 



Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata) ... 4 pecks. 



Meadow fescue (Festuca prntenxis) . .3 



Tall fertile meadow-grass (Festm-a elatior var . 



fert.ilis), only in very h.-avy soils constantly 



depastured with cattle. 

 Meadow cat's-tail, or true timothy grass (Phle- 



um pratf-nsc major) - . . . i _ 



Broad-leaved bent, or florin )Jltrrostit stolo- 



nifera) 1 _ 



Tall oat-like soft -grass (Holcus avenaceus) - 2 



Woolly snft-prass (f^olcus lartatus'), only in 

 case's of considerable elevation and poverty 

 of soil. 



Pacey's perennial rye-grass (Lolium perenne) 3 pecks. 



Burnet (Poterium Sanorui^orba) - - - 2 



Cow-grass, or perennial red clover (Trifulivm 

 pratense pertnne) ..... 6 Ibs. 



White clover (Trifolium repens) - - - 8 



The quantity of the grass seeds employed 

 per acre, for permanent ordinary pasture ne- 

 cessarily varies with the nature of the soil. A 

 practical English farmer gives the following 

 as an excellent mixture. (Mark Lane Exp. 

 April 5, 1841.) 



6. Transplantation or inoculation of turf. This 

 plan, which is one in certain situations, offer- 

 ing considerable advantages, is described in 

 the Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 523, and by G. Sinclair, 

 Hart. Gram. Wob.p. 415. The mode of returning 

 tillage land to permanent pasture, called trans- 

 planting, was originally invented by Mr. Whit- 

 worth, of Acre House, Lincolnshire, and it 

 was first practised to any extent by Mr. John 

 Bloomfield, of Warham, Norfolk. In laying 

 down land to permanent pasture by this mode, 

 it is essential that the soil should be free from 

 the seeds and roots of weeds, and made per- 

 fectly clean by a summer fallow. The autumn 

 is the best time for transplanting turf, and that 

 as soon as the autumn rains have sufficiently 

 moistened the turf to fit it for paring off clean : 

 the roots of the grasses thus get established 

 before the commencement of warm weather in 

 the spring. It is also essential that the turf 

 should be selected or taken from the very best 

 pasture, for otherwise weeds and inferior 

 grasses will be propagated. If the field from 

 which the turf is to be taken to make the new 

 pasture, is intended to be broken up for a 

 course of tillage crops, then the whole of the 

 turf may be taken off and employed in form- 

 ing the new pasture to the required extent. 

 But should the field be required to remain in 

 permanent pasture, a portion only of the 

 turf must be taken from the field, and a suffi- 

 ciency of the sward, or grass-plant, left stand- 

 ing for that purpose. In the first of these 

 cases, Mr. Blakie directs a paring-plough to be 

 used ; but if that cannot be conveniently ob- 

 tained, a common plough, with the coulter and 

 share made very sharp, will answer the pur- 

 pose : a wheel plough is preferable, adds Sin- 

 clair, to a swing plough for paring turfs, be- 

 cause it goes steadier, and cuts the turf more 

 regularly. The turf should be cut about 2 



573 



