194 THE LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE DON. 
choose a barren soil. I have repeatedly tried to cultivate them on 
a rich soil, but could never succeed. _I have tried the A. uliginosa 
on a dry barren soil, and the A. flexuosa on a wet barren soil, also 
without success; but I succeeded well when each was placed in the 
soil indicated by nature?. 
The only other instance I shall here mention relates to the Poa 
jlexuosa*, a grass which | discovered in June 1794, growing among 
stones near the summit of Ben Nevis. I have tried to cultivate this 
Poa in good soil, but my efforts proved abortive in every instance: 
yet I have cultivated it ever since 1794, on a barren soil with 
perfect success. 
In the cultivation of grasses the farmer may have two distinct 
objects in view ; 
1. To produce herbage of a short duration, in a rotation of crops, 
2. To produce permanent pasture. 
In regard to the first of these, viz. the production of hay crops 
for two or three years, it is not my present intention to treat very 
particularly on that subject; but on some future occasion I may be 
induced to offer my opinions on that head more fully. In the 
sequel I shall only suggest some remarks regarding the cultivation 
of hay crops on poor soils. I may here notice in passing, that no 
grass which is merely annual can much deserve the attention of the 
British farmer; and | have lately seen some seeds of panic grass 
which had been presented to the Highland Society, as the grass 
cultivated in Hungary for a hay crop; but as this falls under the 
description of an annual, little is to be expected from it. 
The second head above mentioned, viz. to obtain permanent 
pasture, shall be the chief subject of the present paper. Many 
words are not necessary to prove, that it would be a most desirable 
object with every possessor of high lands, or sterile grounds of 
every description, to have a method pointed out to him by which 
these lands might be rendered productive. Projectors and visionary 
writers have broached many schemes, which every skilful farmer 
would reject without trial; and even those who have done most to 
effect this desirable purpose, have fallen into strange and unac- 
countable errors, by the want of truly discriminating the species 
and nature of the plants which are the subjects of their investiga- 
1 Mr. Knapp in elegant = on shearer grasses ies ——— my A. uliginosa 
as a distinct species, t A. scabro-setacea. 
