204 THE RYEGRASS CROP. 



oftliQlIortus Gramineus Woburnensis (1824), Dickson's, 

 Ruck's, Russell's, Stickney's, Whitworth's, and others, had 

 been introduced to public notice. These perennial varieties, 

 though, from their superior vigour and more permanent 

 characters, well adapted for permanent pastures, and for 

 mixing with seeds that were intended to be kept down 

 for two or three years, as is practised frequently in the 

 longer rotations of the north, were neither suited for the 

 shorter rotation of the light soils, farmed upon the Nor- 

 folk system, nor for cultivation by themselves as a crop 

 for forage purposes. The success of a " perennial variety" 

 originated the necessity for a superior " annual variety/' 

 which should come to its maturity in one year, and thus 

 supply the wants of immediate use as successfully as the 

 improved perennial was acknowledged to do for those of 

 a permanent character. This want was supplied by the 

 introduction of a new species, the " Italian ryegrass/' 

 for which, as indeed for many other of our farm plants, 

 we are indebted to Messrs. Lawson, who in 1831 obtained 

 the first lot of seed from the Continent, and whose imports 

 have increased enormously each year since. 1 Although 

 it cannot, perhaps, be regarded strictly as an annual, it 

 has the advantage of coming to its full maturity in the 

 first year, which is all that is desired in its cultivation ; 

 while the perennial species is not strictly perennial, as it 

 rarely stands for more than four or five years, unless 



1 Foreign -grow 11 Italian Ryegrass imported by Messrs. Lawson : 



