100 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



from which the seed has fallen is not nearly so nutri- 

 tious as that on which it was saved half-ripe ; witness 

 the Australian plan of cutting and drying oats, for 

 winter use, before the seed is full. Apropos of this, 

 I remember, some years since, visiting the farm of one 

 of our greatest and most intelligent living agiicul- 

 turists. He took me, after other sights, to see a batch 

 of six prize cart-mares, fat as butter, and frolicking 

 about the fold. At the expression of my exceeding 

 admiration he smiled, and took me to the corn-bin, 

 wherein he showed me only grass-seed. Being a 

 man of substance, and always wide-aw^ake, he gets 

 many a good bargain such as does not drop into the 

 mouth of every passer-by. 



Grass seeds will not vegetate, as a rule, the second 

 year. A neighbouring speculator, having been unable 

 to clear off his stock within the season, was glad to 

 take what he could get for the surviving store, and 

 that was, if I remember well, but a shilling the sack. 

 On this the team fattened — whether profitably or not, 

 you can calculate, my reader, for yourself 



The gardener is just beginning his noisy, clattering 

 avocation upon the lawn ; and, as I am in the humour 

 for revealing pet receipts, let me tell you of another 

 very useful one, originally discovered by a professor 

 of chemistry at the University, who took pride in 

 the improvement of ^the' fellows grass-plot. I need 

 scarcely describe to you that industrious weed which 

 so persistently disfigures our slopes, to the displace- 

 ment of fine grasses — the plantain (its name how 

 suggestive of delicious West Indian breakfasts ! but 

 its use, so far as I know, in this country being con- 

 fined to supplying canaries with a change of diet on 



