220 [ASSBMBI.T 



Farmers' Cluhj April 21th, 1852. 



Henuy Swift, Escj., ia llio chair. Present 24 member?. 



The Secretary said he was pleased to read extracts from the 

 "Walks and Talks in. England," a volume recently from the pen 

 of Mr. Olmstead, of Staten Island : 



GRASS 11^ ENGLAND. 



Prom an Amerlc'in rarrnor in England. Frederick Law OIiCBt cad, of Stalca Island. Nevr- 

 York, 1352. 



" The comoionest grass seed sown in England, what may be cal- 

 led the staple grass, is rye, or ray-grass, a perennial. It is much 

 smaller, closer growing grass than our timothy. I think it has a 

 Gweeter taste, is probably, bulk for bulk, more nutritious, and per- 

 haps so pound for pound j but I think more fat and muscle can 

 be made from an acre if sowed with timothy than with rye-grass. 

 A valuable quality of rye-grass is its early spring grow^ih. A 

 field of rye-grass will be up some inches, offering a tempting bite 

 to cattle before a field of other grasses will show a green surlace. 

 I believe that it ripens earlier too than timothy, and is better for 

 mowing ground on this account, to be sown wl'th clover, v.'hich is 

 injured by over-ripeness, if not cut till timothy is in its best state 

 for hay. I have seen no timothy in England but I know it is 

 •sometimes sowed. 



Rye-grass has stood at the head of tlie mowing grasses, in some 

 parts of England, for centuries. In districts of light and dry 

 soils, it is less in favor tlian elsewhere, but I judge becomes of 

 more value with the improvement of husbandry generally. Mar- 

 shall (179<5) writing from Gloucestershire, speaks of the general 

 strong prejudice of the farmers against rye-'grass, which he calls 

 his iavoiite grass: — "smothering everything and impoverishing 

 the soil, until it will grow nothing," they say ; and arguing against 

 them, he makes an observation of value with reterence to the 

 question of quantity. " If real rye-grass has ever been tried alone 

 and without success, it has probably risen from too great a quan- 



