214 THE KYEGRASS CROP. 



ing as a single crop, being only of annual duration, and 

 eminently suited for such soils as he farmed, viz., high, 

 wet, moorish lands of considerable tenacity, and such as 

 do not retain the clovers throughout the winter. His 

 practice was to sow it in September, at the rate of 40 Ibs. 

 per acre ; and he reports that it yielded him very large re- 

 turns of forage and of hay. This probably might be a 

 serviceable description to sow in the autumn on any por- 

 tions of a field where the young grass may have failed, 

 from luxuriance of the corn crop, or from other causes. 

 The other variety is known as 



Bailly's Skort-awned Annual Ryegrass, takes its 

 distinctive name from that of a leading agriculturist in 

 the department of the Loire, who first introduced it into 

 cultivation. It differs from the preceding variety by 

 having only those seeds towards the extremity of its 

 spikes slightly awned, which circumstance, together with 

 the form and great weight of the seeds, as well as its 

 shortness of duration, gives it the appearance of a hybrid 

 between the L. italicum and L. arvense. Besides having 

 much heavier seeds, it is shorter in growth, as well as 

 thicker in straw and finer in foliage, than the last. 

 M. Bailly, in his description of the variety, states that he 

 has obtained as much as 6000 Ibs. of seed from an acre. 

 If anything like this rate of seed-produce could be secured, 

 it surely is a variety worth the attention of those farming 

 in favourable climates, as the amount of nutritious food 

 it would supply, assuming the seed to be of equal value 

 to that of the ordinary ryegrass, is far beyond the average 

 of our usual crops. 



The last species to which we have to refer is 



4. Lolium temulentum Bearded Darnel (fig. 2, p. 206) 



a most pernicious weed, growing chiefly in wheat fields, 



where its presence is always indicative of the backward 



condition of the agriculture of the district. It is annual in 



