232 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



grows with greater luxuriance than the common rye grass, and 

 its nutritive properties may be inferred from the eagerness 

 with which it is eaten by animals. It is probably in most cases 

 of biennial duration; but by being cropped or mown, before 

 flowering, it may remain several years in the ground. It ap- 

 pears to be a very valuable herbage plant; but farther experi- 

 ments are yet required in the United States, to show how far 

 its permanence in the ground can be depended on. 



In a late number of the British Farmer's Magazine, the editor says: The 

 trial of this article for four seasons proves it far superior to every other grass 

 lor winter herbage, and much the earliest for feed of any grass in the spring; 

 but what renders it still more valuable as a feeding grass is, that it is preferred 

 by cattle to any of the common sorts a fact which has been proved by nume- 

 rous experiments in various parts of the country; and the rapidity with which 

 it again shoots forth after having been either mown or fed off, renders it par- 

 ticularly advantageous for light soils, as the common rye grass never sends 

 forth a second crop, either for feed or seed, of any consequence. In poor land 

 it may be safely sown with clover (as it has been with success in France) to 

 the great increase of the crop and benefit of the quality of the hay. These 

 results fully show it to be well deserving the attention of agriculturists, pos- 

 sessing as it does, greater hardness, and uniting in itself all the good qualities 

 sought for in rye grass. 



It is a subject of astonishment that this valuable plant, (Trifolium incarna- 

 tum} should not have been long ago introduced into this country, and culti- 

 vated on an extensive scale. If sown in autumn, after a crop of potatoes or 

 other roots, it produces next spring a crop fit to be cut for soiling cattle, eight 

 days earlier than lucern, and a fortnight before red clover. Care, however, 

 must be taken to have good seed, and not to sow it too deep. It produces two 

 excellent crops in one year, the first of which should be cut as soon as it comes 

 into flower, and the second will produce a considerable quantity of seed. 

 From its early growth in spring, when other articles for feeding stock with 

 advantage are so difficult to be obtained, it is likely to become a valuable ac- 

 quisition to British husbandry. Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. 



9. Florin or Bent Grass. 



The Jiorin or bent grass, sometimes called creeping bent 

 grass, affords a wholesome food to cattle is a very common 

 grass in England, and many parts of Europe. It flourishes 

 astonishingly in Ireland. It will grow both in wet and dry, 

 rich and poor situations, frequently vegetating with such luxu- 

 riance, as to suppress the growth of moss and other weeds. 

 On rich marl soils, and in moist soils, if we may rely on the 

 accounts given of its produce in Great Britain, it is the most 

 valuable of all herbage plants. It was first brought to the 

 notice of the English farmer by the Rev. Dr. RICHARDSON, 

 in 1809. The peculiar qualities of this grass are said to be 



1. It grows luxuriantly in low and swampy grounds, which, 

 but for its cultivation, would be of very little or no value.* 



2. It is far more prolific than any other grass. 3. Horses, 



* Should not the swampy land be first drained? If so, would it not produce 

 other grasses? 



