888 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



cock's-foot grass(i), and woolly soft grass(r). 

 Where a crop of hay is desired within the 

 year, it is necessary to resort to such grasses 

 as are annuals in the strict sense of the word ; 

 and none can be better for this purpose than 

 the common oat (^vena satlva), cut and 

 made into hay when it comes into flower. 

 Next in order may be mentioned the other 

 cereal grasses and the annual varieties of 

 J5rdmus : the latter, however, are very coarse 

 grasses, though prolific in culm. 



5654. Tlie biennial rye-grass (iolium 

 per^^nne var. bienne L.) is well known, as 

 being universally sown, either with or with- 

 out clover, among corn crops, with a view 

 to one crop of hay in the succeeding season. 

 It attains a greater height, and produces a longer broader spike of flowers, than the 

 perennial rye-grass, and the produce in hay is considered greater than that of any other 

 annual grass, equally palatable to cattle. It prefers a rich loamy soil, but will grow on 

 any surface whatever, not rock or undecayed bog. 



5655. The perennial rye-grass (iolium per^nne L. Ivraie vivace, Fr. ; Daurende 

 Lolche, Ger. ; and Loglio vivace, Ital.) differs from the other in being of somewhat 

 smaller growth, and in abiding for several years, according to the variety and the soil 

 and culture. 



5656. Many consider this grass coarse, benty, and very exhausting to the soil ; but, after all the experi- 

 ments that have been made on the other grasses, none have been found to equal it for a course of mowing 

 and pasturing for two, three, or seven years. It is sown in Italy, and especially in Lombardy, and also in 

 France and Germany, along with clover, for the same purposes as in this country; and, as Von Thaer has 

 remarked, though some have tried other species, both in these countries and in England, they have in the 

 end returned to rye-grass. When intended as a pasture-grass, if stocked hard, and v/hen for hay, if mown 

 early, the objections to it are removed. (.Code of Agriculture.) G. Sinclair says the circumstance of its 

 producing abundance of seed, which is easily collected, and vegetates freely on any soil, its early perfection 

 and abundant herbage the first year, which is much relished by cattle, are the merits which have upheld 

 it to the present day, and will probably for some time to come continue it a favourite grass among farmers. 

 But the lattermath is inconsiderable, the plant impoverishes the soil in a high degree if not cut before the 

 seed ripens. When this is neglected, the field after midsummer exhibits only a brown surface of withered 

 straws. Let the produce and nutritive powers of rye-grass be compared with those of the cock's-foot 

 grass, and it will be found inferior nearly in the proportion of 5 to 18 ; to meadow fox-tail of 5 to 12 ; and 

 to meadow fescue of 5 to 17. (Hort. Gram. Wob. 2d edit 215. and see \ 5662.) In a subsequent page he 

 observes, " The new varieties, however, of this species of grass, which have been discovered of late years, 

 remove in a considerable degree the serious objections which applied to the common rye-grass." {lb. 412.) 

 The varieties alluded to are all perennial, and as under : 



of Acre House, Lincolnshire, an eminent cultivator of the 

 pasture grasses, who, in 1823, had 60 varieties of I<61ium 

 per^nne under experiment. 



Siickney's rye-grots, introduced by Stickney of Holdemess. 



Ruaaell't rye-grass, first cultivated by the late B. Holditch, 

 Esq., editor of TAe Farmer's Journal, from seed obtained of a 



lant in a rich fen pasture, pointed out to Holditch by the 

 luke of Bedford. 



Church bennet, or Church bent-grass, an excellent variety of 

 rye-grass, cultivated in some parts of Berkshire. 



Slender ryegrass, common in dry impoverished pasttire land. 



Compound or broad spiked rye-grass, found in rich soils, long 

 tinder grass, and chiefly in beaten parts, as cart-wavs, &c. It 

 has a short broad spike, crowded with spikelets at the top. 



Pacey's rye-grass, found in rich meadow lands, and intro- 

 duced by Pacey, a cultivator in the uplands of StaiTordshire ; 

 spike nearly upright, spikelets shorter than in the compound 

 rje-grass, the stem furnished with long leaves, and the root 

 leaves large and numerous. Sinclair considers this the most 

 valuable variety of the rye-grass. 



fVhitrvorth's rye-grass, Introduced by G. 'VVhitworth, Esq., 



All the above, except the first two, are excellent varieties. Pacey's and Russell's are considered 

 the best. 



5657. The proportional value which the grass at the time of flowering bears to the grass at the time the 

 seed is ripe, is as 10 to 11. The proportional value which the grass of the lattermath bears to the grass at 

 the time of flowering, is as 4 to 10 ; and to grass at the time the seed is ripe, as 4 to 11. 



5658. The seed of perennial rye-grass is not to be distinguished from that of the annual variety. It may 

 be collected by hand, in most parts of Britain, from old pastures, and a considerable quantity is annually 

 so procured in Kent and Sussex. It is also grown purposely for seed in England and Scotland. Formerly 

 it was the practice for farmers to collect the seed which dropped from the hay used by their horses ; but 

 rye-grass, grown for hay, is now cut, by all judicious farmers, when it is just coming into flower ; and there- 

 fore to collect the glumes or empty husks can be of no use as seed. It has also been a common practice, 

 in regard to rye-grass, to let the mixed crop of that and clover stand till the seeds of the former have 

 attained a considerable degree of ripeness, when it is cut down and made into hav, in the usual manner; 

 and the seeds of the rye-grass are separated by the use of the flail, commonly before the hay is put into 

 the field-ricks. Sometimes, when but a small quantity is wanted, the hay is merely shaken well upon a 

 cloth, when it is building in the stack-yard ; or afterwards in the stable-loft, before it is put into the 

 horse's racks. But in all of these methods, in order to obtain good seed, the clover must remain uncut 

 beyond the proper season ; and it is thus materially injured in quality, while the value of the rye-grass 

 seed, in such a crop, is merely a secondary consideration. 



56o9. When seed is the principal objectofthe culture of rye-grass, it ought not to be mixed with clover at 

 all, though it may be sown along with any of the kinds of corn, and treated the year after in every respect 

 as a crop of corn ; bound up in sheaves, built in stacks, threshed with the flail, and dressed by the win. 

 Mowing-machine in the same manner. 



5660. The difflculty of distinguishing between the annual and perennial varieties of rye-grass has led to 

 the practice, in some places, of cutting or pasturing the first year's crop, and taking a crop for seed the 

 second year. If the growth of the rye-grass plants be close and vigorous the second year, there is reason 

 to be satisfied that the seed is of the perennial variety ; and though red clover was sown with the rye-grass, 

 a great part of it disappears by that time, and forms but a small portion of the second year's cutting. {Sup. 

 Encyc. Brit, art Agr.) 



