468 Yestuca ovhia, Fesiuca rubra, 



in the fields, I fell in with the flock of sheep, and was much 

 astonished to find them in excellent condition, well fed, very 

 lively, with round backs and sides. But where did I find them ? 

 In a field of meadow brome-grass and creeping fescue sown 

 in for seed, and which had been reaped a short time before. 

 The shepherd told me that, after the corn had been carried, he 

 had been allowed to put his sheep on these fields ; and that this 

 circumstance had saved his flock, which could not pick up a 

 subsistence elsewhere. You would really have been delighted 

 to see each animal following a row, and browsing with avidity 

 the green healthy leaves which carpeted the soil under the 

 stubble, which was cut 2 or 3 inches high. And what 

 would have struck you more is, that these rows of verdure were 

 growing on the side of a calcareous hill, so stony that the 

 ground was scarcely seen among the fragments of rock which 

 covered it. The sheep preferred grazing on that half of the 

 piece of ground that was occupied by the brome. My shepherd 

 told me (what I already knew) that in summer they prefer this 

 grass to the i^estuca ; which they devour eagerly, on the contrary, 

 in winter and early spring. 



Some days afterwards I went to visit my neighbour, M. 

 Deprey, proprietor of the farm of Buisson, which I sold to him 

 some years ago. I had formed some years before on the most 

 rocky parts of the estate, which is also all calcareous soil, several 

 pastures of brome and i^estuca, one particularly of twelve acres, 

 sown with a mixture of the two sorts. I begged of him to pre- 

 serve these pastures, which he fortunately did. He told me 

 they had been an admirable resource to him ; that while all the 

 sheep in the neighbouring farms were dying of hunger, not a 

 single day had passed in summer that his flock did not come 

 home full. 



You saw, at Fontainebleau, the i^estuca ovina used for laying 

 down in grass very poor sandy soil, but which was too cold for 

 it : it has but a poor effect there as turf, and its principal ad- 

 vantage is that of lasting for a number of years. You would 

 have admired it much more on our calcareous rocks, where it 

 forms a much thicker and closer carpet, of a dark green, and 

 which has besides the great merit of being useful, as you have 

 just seen. 



Another valuable property of these two plants is their long 

 duration. M. Deprey*^s pastures have been established twelve 

 or fourteen years ; they are still very good and healthy. The 

 largest, which was originally thinly stocked, has increased from 

 year to year by sowing itself; for the sheep do not eat the flower- 

 stalks, but only the leaf of the plant, so that the seed ripens and 

 sows itself again. The first portion of meadow grass which I 

 laid down on the calcareous soil is now eighteen years old ; and 



