40 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOKARY PASTURES. 



Cocksfoot, if tlie latter is allowed to grow the least old. The 

 one is invariably eaten down close ; the other is frequently per- 

 mitted to develope into large tufts and send up wiry culms which 

 the animals refuse to touch. Horses also eat Festuca j^ratensl^ 

 greedily, and it should always be sown for them on suitable land, 

 especially as the paddocks are often within sight of the mansion, 

 where constant verdure is desirable. 



All points considered, this may properly be regarded as one 

 of the most valuable, perhaps the most valuable, grass that can be 

 sown. 



At Rothamstead, Meadow Fescue was evidently not at home. 

 It appears to have some rather unexpected antipathies as to soil, 

 and in some localities is pushed out of pastures by other grasses. 

 Nitrate of soda and mineral manures alone seem capable of 

 augmenting its growth. Stebler, however, speaks favourably of 

 the eflects of fresh farm-vard manure. 



The botanical description and analysis of Festuca pratensis 

 are given at page 142, facing an illustration. 



Festuca elatior {7\(U Fescue). — The name elutior as given to 

 this grass by Linmeus not only included the tall-growing variety 

 which Encflish botanists alone know as elatior. but under that 

 designation he included the smaller sort afterwards elevated 

 into a distinct species by Hudson, and which is now known in 

 England as pratensis. Although the indigenous variety of elatior 

 found exclusively in wet marshy places, in inland ditches and 

 tidal waters, is so coarse and harsh as, according to Curtis, to be 

 of little value for good pastures, Sinclair pointed out its merits 

 as a fodder grass for strong undrained clays unsuited to the 

 growth of the finer grasses. He also calls attention to the fact 

 that no crop can be depended upon from the sowing of the seed, 

 and adds : ' It does not perfect much seed, and can only, there- 

 fore, be propagated by parting and planting the roots.' Again 

 he says : ' The seed is universally, according to all my observa- 

 tions, affected with a disease called clavus (ergot), and conse- 



