224 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 



clothing the surface in every zone, attaining generally a 

 greater height, with less closeness at the roots, in warm 

 climates ; and producing a low, close, thick, dark green 

 nutritive herbage, in the cooler latitudes. The best grass 

 pastures are found in countries that have least cold in 

 winter, and no excess of heat in summer, as in Ireland, 

 England, Holland, and Denmark. In every zone, where 

 there are high mountains, there are certain positions be- 

 tween the base and summit, where, from the equilibrium 

 of the temperature, turf may be found equal to that in 

 marine islands." 



The universal presence of the forage grasses, and the 

 rapidity with which all soils become covered with them, 

 when left uncultivated, is the obvious reason why their 

 selection and systematic culture are of but recent date. 

 This branch of culture originated in England, about the 

 middle of the seventeenth century, and at first embraced 

 only rye-grass, was afterwards extended to cock's-foot, 

 timothy, foxtail, &c. The Duke of Bedford made the 

 latest and most laborious efforts towards attaining a knowl- 

 edge of the comparative value of all the British and some 

 foreign grasses worth cultivating. The result is given 

 in the Appendix to Sir H. Davy's Agricultural Chem- 

 istry, and of which an abstract will be found at the close 

 of this essay. 



With respect to the general culture of grasses, though 

 no department of agriculture is more simple in the execu- 

 tion, yet, from the nature of grasses, considerable judge- 

 ment is required in the design. Though grasses abound 

 in every soil and situation, yet all the species do not 

 abound in every soil and situation indifferently. On the 

 contrary, no class of perfect plants are so absolute and 

 unalterable in their choice in this respect. The creep- 

 ing-rooted and stoloniferous grasses will grow readily on 

 moist soils ; but the fibrous-rooted species, and especially 

 the more delicate upland grasses, require particular at- 

 tention as to the soil in which they are sown ; for in many 

 soils they will not come up at all, or die away in a few 

 years, and give way to the grasses which would naturally 

 spring up in such a soil, when left to a state of nature. 



