HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. S3 



functions for the year, and so prepared its larger 

 rootstocks for the future season; so that he would 

 not be altogether so mad who, in reference to the 

 cutting of thistles and nettles in August and Sep- 

 tember, should say — 



Kill a fool's head of your own ; 



They'll die of themselves if you let them alone. 



Beating nettles in the early part of the year with 

 lithe ash sticks is more effectual than the cleaner cut 

 with the scythe, as the injuries arc not so easily got 

 over. 



4. That there are many plants in pastures which 

 if eaten exclusively would act as poisons we can have 

 but little doubt, but there are a few which would 

 seem to be dangerous, even when partaken of in 

 grass mixtures. Of these, the meadow saffron is one 

 of the most powerful. 



This plant is abundant on the oolitic rocks of the 

 Cotteswolds, about which range we constantly hear of 

 mischief from it. We extract the following from a 

 Cheltenham paper for September, 18M : — 



It is only a few days since a farmer at Eyeford, near Stow-on-the- 

 Wold (Gloucestershire), had ten calves hilled by eating of the flowers 

 of the colchicum, and two or three years since three cows were 

 destroyed by this plant in flower in the same neighbourhood, whilst 

 we frequently hear of many accidents to cattle in the spring from 

 eating the leaves, although it is sometimes refused by them on 

 account of its bitter and nauseous taste. Yet there is no doubt 

 but that accidents would be still more frequent were it not that 

 farmers keep their cattle from the meadows in which it occurs in 

 any quantity during the spring and autumn months. 



Pulling the leaves of the meadow saffron or colchi- 

 cum will destroy it ; but a much more simple remedy 

 is that of a thorough rolling with a Croskill at the 



