202 THE LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE DON. 
2. For wet boggy soils. 
When drainage is not eligible from the nature and situation of 
the ground, much might be done for marshy grounds if arable 
during summer. Where a permanent pasture is the only object, 
and the soil of bad quality, the Hlolcus /anatus, Meadow soft grass, 
alone appears preferable to all other grasses. 
Where the soil and situation are tolerably good, the Poa érivialts 
should alone be used. This grass may be cut, perhaps five or six 
times during the summer, and will be found more profitable by this 
management, than if it were reserved for a hay crop. 
If it be intended to convert boggy soil into arable land, draining is 
indispensable, and for a rotation of hay crops, take the following 
seeds. 
Festuca pratensis, Meadow fescue grass, two thirds, 
Poa trivalis, Rough stalked meadow grass, one third. 
This mixture will always produce a good hay crop in tolerable 
soil. But in case of a superior quality of soil, I would prefer a 
taller kind of Fescue, called Festuca elatior, which some writers have 
regarded as a variety of the above, and others as a distinct species. 
It much resembles the above, the chief difference being that it is 
twice the size. In point of quality, this grass equals the rye grass, 
and as a hay crop, it should produce double the quantity. 
What I have said above in regard to wet bogs, may be equally 
applicable to peat soil. For I have cultivated the grasses now 
enumerated, in peat soil, with success. 
3. For sandy downs on the shore. 
In cultivating loose sand, the great object frequently is, to intro- 
duce such plants as are likely to bind the soil, and form a sward 
of pasture acceptable to cattle. In this case the following seeds 
may be used, 
Festuca rubra, Creeping fescue grass, one half, 
Festuca duriuscula, Hard fescue grass, equal parts 
Poa pratensis, Smooth stalked meadow grass, for the 
Poa compressa, Flat stalked meadow grass, other half. 
It the soil be pure sand, a hay crop need not be expected; but a 
permanent pasture may be thus established. 
In case the sand be dry, and apt to become parched, nothing can 
equal the Lucerne as a profitable crop, either for cutting or pasture. 
