ITALIAN BYE-GRASS ; ITS CDLTUEB AND ADVANTAGES. 



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ITALIAN RYE-GRASS; ITS Cm,TDRE & ADVANTAGES. 



Mr. EniTOK;— The growth of Italian rye-grasa, in 

 small and isolated patches, has long been practiced 

 in Great Rritain; but, like many other instances, 

 either smothered by the ignorance and supineness of 

 the old school farmei-s, or reserved for enlarged intro- 

 duction under the more intelligent and systematic 

 agriculture of the present day, its cultivation, until 

 within the hist few years, has been very limited, and 

 confined almost exclusively to those who have been 

 regarded as mere experimentalists. 



At the annual exhibition of the Yorkshire Agri- 

 cultural Society, it is the custom (and one which the 

 Societies of this province might adopt with advan- 

 tage) at the council dinner, on the second day of the 

 meeting, to introduce for discussion, in lieu of the 

 ordinary complimentary speeches, some agricultural 

 subject likely to excite attention ; and as at this din- 

 ner there are generally from 200 to 300 of the most 

 extensive and intelligent land owners and occupiers 

 as,iembled, it forms an arena for the developement of 

 practical and scientific knowledge which never fails to 

 elicit the true value of the suggestions which from 

 time to time are brought under review. It was on 

 this occasion, in the year 1845, that the writer had 

 the pleasure of hearing Mr. Dickinson, the extensive 

 omnibus and cab proprietor of the city of London 

 and consequent owner of a large number of horses 

 requiring much care and attention, introduce the sub- 

 ject of Italian rye-grass cultivation, and which formed 

 the publicly recognized starting point of a practice 

 that has gradually extended itself throughout the 

 kingdom. Mr. Dickinson opened the subject by 

 stating that he occupied a small suburban farm a 

 few miles out of London, upon which he always had 

 a large number of horses either as invalids, for change 

 of diet, or as young stock, and that he had, at first, 

 experienced considerable difficulty in providing for 

 them a sufficient quantity of green food, until his at- 

 tention was called, from some fortuitous circumstance, 

 to the advantages of growing, successive crops of 

 Italian i-ye-grass. As a commencement he selected 

 a portion of a small field of somewhat under four 

 acres, adjoining his stables and infirmary, and suita- 

 bly situated for distributing the liquid manure made 

 on the premises over its surface, after each successive 

 cutting. He was so perfectly satisfied with the re- 

 sult of this first year's trial, that he determined the 

 second year not only to sow the whole of this field 

 for green food, but also some of the other fields on the 

 farm for hogs. As a sample of the third cutting of 



this second year's crop, he exhibited to the meeting 

 (time, the first week in August,) a large bundle ol 

 the gras.s, upwards of three feet in length, and he 

 stated that the fourth cutting would probably reach 

 from IJ to 2 feet in length before winter ; adding as 

 the conclusion of his address, "And now gentlemen 

 when I tell you that 100 horses have never been able 

 to consume the whole of the produce from this small 

 field of about four acres, you will I think agree with 

 me that this is a most valuable description of grass, 

 and well deserving your attention." 



Now this grass has many properties to recommend 

 it to the farmers of Canada; it is hardy; of quick 

 and successive growth; bears any amount of forcing 

 by irrigation; and }et at the same time stands drouth 

 well on sound and I'ry land, and is preferred by stock 

 to every other description of grass. The writer has 

 seen it grown with marked success under various cir- 

 cumstances — not only under the conditions adopted 

 by Mr. Dickinson, but on high and dry land sheep 

 farms, where it is now commonly sown as a portion 

 of the seeding crop. Its early growth is a great ad- 

 vantage in a sheep pasture — fostering the smaller 

 grasses — and it bears eating better almost than any 

 other grass or clover, and sheep will select it in pre- 

 ference to all other kinds — and it stands well for two 

 years. On these lands it does not, of course, attain 

 that luxuriance of growth which it reaches on the 

 better soils, and under favoring circumstances ; but 

 even on the light and dry lands it outgrows every 

 thing else, and afifords pasturage to the last when all 

 the other grasses of the mixture are extinct. As a 

 hay crop, grown under the ordinary system of culti- 

 vation, it would beyond all doubts greatly exceed the 

 timothy grass in point of quantity, and there seems 

 no reason why it should not in point of quality be its 

 superior also. It is already attracting considerable 

 attention among our neighbors in the States ; and 

 there are numerous situations in this country where- 

 by drainage, and the arrangement of a simple and in- 

 expensive plan of ii-rigation, it might be grown to 

 its utmost limit of excellence; and where the profit 

 of three or four cuttings a year from the same sow- 

 ing would workaspeedy conviction of its advantages. 

 As a cow keeper's crop, it puts all others" far into the 

 shade, keeping the cows in high condition, and pro- 

 ducing a plentiful supply of milk. From the daily 

 diminishing facilities for depasturing cows within the 

 limits of our cities and towns, by the rapid increase 

 of buildings, and other appropriation of the open 

 lots, the cultivation of Italian rye-grass, upon a very 

 small area of land in proportion to the quantity of 



