280 MAY. 



entire growth of at least 40 weeks, has amounted 

 not to the fourth of the value of the produce of 

 similar soils pared close by sheep. " A Ronrmey- 

 Marsh grazier would be ruined if he had so much 

 grass on his land," says Mr. Boys, in his Farming 

 Tour, speaking of a field understocked*. " No- 

 thing so bad,? says another, " in Romney- Marsh, 

 as mowing, so that some landlords prohibit it." 

 Pliny knew this Est enim in primis inutile, nasci 

 herbas sementaturus*^- . Of the fact, however, I 

 have not the least doubt, from various experiments 

 and observations ; and there is no man but has re- 

 marked it in the case of ray-grass, the produce of 

 which is lost, if the bent be allowed to rise. In 

 all plants cultivated for pasturage, there is a great 

 effort the moment the seed-stem runs, to which 

 the whole growth of the plant is directed to form 

 the seed ; till then the growth is in the leaves ; it 

 is therefore palpable, that the way to have the 

 greatest abundance of leaf, is by feeding so close 

 as to prevent those stems rising at all. And I may 

 further observe, that on this system of feeding, 

 those grasses which yield a very great, but coarse 

 produce, become sweet, fine, and valuable, by thus 

 keeping them close fed. The avena elatior, or tall 

 oat- grass, is very coarse, but in a field of 13 acres 

 and a half of that grass, it never was suffered to 



* Annals, vol. xix. p US. See also Mr, Price's Observations., 

 in that Marsh. 



f Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xviii. cap. 28. 



rise, 



