Catalogue of Works on Gardening, &;c. 183 



Treatise on the cultivated Grasses ajid other Herbage and Forage Plants, luith the 

 Kinds and Quantities of Seeds for solving down Land to alternate Hnsbandri/, 

 permanent Pasturey Lawns, Sfc, By Peter Lawson and Son, Seedsmen to 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. Pamph. 8vo, pp. 49. 

 Edinburgh and London, 1843. 



This is a very carefully prepared work, and one which ought to be in the 

 hands of every farmer who practises the alternate husbandry, and of every 

 gardener who has lawns to form. The introduction contains the history 

 of hei'bage and forage plants, in the early ages, in England, in Scotland, and 

 in Ireland ; and a histoi'y of the introduction of species and of varieties. Next 

 follow descriptions of the true or natural grasses, and of the clovers or arti- 

 ficial grasses, followed by remarks on sowing by measure and weight, and a 

 table of weights per bushel, and number of seeds per ounce. Then follow 

 13 tables of kinds and quantities of grass seeds required for sowing an im- 

 perial acre ; 1. for alternate husbandry ; 2. for permanent pasture, first mixture 

 and second mixture ; 3. for permanent lawn pastures, first mixture and second 

 mixture ; 4. for fine lawns, bowling-greens, &c. ; 5. for lands in preparation for 

 irrigation ; 6. for pasture and hay in orchards, &c. ; 7. for pasturage and cover 

 in thick shady woods ; 8. for heathy and moory lands, &c. ; 9. for improved 

 dry mossy grounds, &c. ; 10. for marshy grounds, &c. ; 11. for warrens and 

 light sandy links; 12. for dry gravelly situations, &c. ; and 13. for di'ifting or 

 blowing sands. The following quotations will afford a specimen of the valu- 

 able matter contained in this pamphlet. 



" Weight of Seeds •preferable to Measure. — It was formerly an almost uni- 

 versal practice to sow the grasses by measure, and the clovers by iveight ; but, 

 of late, the more judicious innovation of sowing the ivhole by weight has been 

 successfully introduced ; for although the greater weight in one sort is no 

 criterion of its superiority over less weight in another, yet a greater w^eight 

 in the same kind always denotes- a superior quality. Thus, when seed is 

 light, and consequently inferior, the greatest number of seeds is obtained by 

 adhering to a given weight ; and hence there is a chance of nearly an equal 

 number of plants springing up as when the seeds are plump and heavy. But 

 a given weight or measure, applied to the seeds of different grasses, is no 

 indication of the number of plants each sort will produce ; there being ma- 

 terial differences both in the relative bulk and specific gravities of such seeds, 

 as well as a difference in the number of each which germinate in a given 

 quantity. In making out the tables, these variations have therefore been 

 kept in view; and it has also been deemed useful, for the purposes of com- 

 parison, to subjoin a tabular statement of the average weight per bushel of 

 each of the kinds of seeds recommended, with the average number of seeds 

 required to weigh one ounce." (p. 33.) 



In this table, the greatest number of seeds contained in an ounce is in 

 the case of /^grostis stolonifera, the marsh creeping bent-grass, or fiorin, 

 amounting to 500,000 ; and the smallest number is in ^'lymus geniculatus, 

 the jointed sand lyme grass, an ounce of the seeds of which contains only 

 2300 seeds. With regard to weight, a bushel of Cynosiu'us cristatus, the 

 crested dog's-tail grass, weighs 26 lb.; while a bushel of ^vena flavescens, 

 the yellowish oat grass, weighs only 5 lb. In the case of the herbage plants 

 not grasses, an ounce of ylchille« ilfillefolium, the yarrow or common mil- 

 foil, an ounce contains 200,000 seeds, and a bushel weighs 29i lb. while an 

 ounce of common red clover contains 16,000 seeds, and a bushel weighs 

 64 lb. As might be expected, the variation in the weight per bushel of the 

 seeds of the dicotyledonous herbage plants is not nearly so great as in the 

 case of the proper grasses. 



'' Sowing with and without a Crop. — It is not our purpose here to discuss the 

 question, as to whether it is better to sow grass seetls for permanent pasture 

 with or without a corn crop. Both systems have their advocates, as well as 

 their advantages and defects, and depend, in a great measure, on the varied 



