Curt.—On Grasses. 847 
scientist, as he knows that whenever a plant is growing in an unhealthy 
condition, it is liable to the attacks of disease, and becomes the host and 
supporter of parasites. 
In experimenting with grasses and fodder plants, it is therefore necessary 
not only to intreduce them from distant countries where they are in- 
digenous, and acclimatize them, but, after they are acclimatized, to grow 
them upon various kinds of soil, and under different conditions; the soil of 
the experimental beds must represent these soils and conditions, or the 
experiments are worthless. The soils must vary between a light sandy 
mould, sandy loam, stiff loam, friable clay, stiff clay, calcareous sands and 
marl, and must be drained and undrained. The experiments must be 
carried on during summer and winter, and the resulting herbage must be 
weighed, measured, and chemically analyzed during the first three years of 
the experiments, and then fed off by live stock pastured thereon for definite 
periods, according to the results desired to be tested, and this for not less 
than three years, as the first year’s feeding power is often different from the 
subsequent second, and third years. The grasses have after this to be 
allowed to seed, and this seed then to be sown with twelve or more vigorous 
grasses and clovers, and if these do not smother them they are able to take 
their places among grasses for permanent pastures. If they do not stand 
this test their merits are known, and they can be placed in the position 
they ought to hold as fodder or temporary grasses. 
For these and many other reasons I find it very difficult to predict what 
any grass will really be until actual experiment in growth and testing has 
revealed its qualities. Amongst the hundreds of grasses I have grown from 
many parts of the world, I am never able to say with certainty, until after 
years of continued experiment, what a grass will be worth in permanent or 
temporary pasture; some that are very poor for the first few years improve 
with each year after they have been planted out permanently among the 
mixed grasses and grazed over, whilst others cannot stand against more 
vigorous grasses, or the grazing and trampling of stock, or they are not 
able to send their roots far enough for them to obtain a fresh supply of 
elements, after they have been located some time in the pastures. 
Thus the so-called perennial rye will bear feeding down for two, three, 
or four years, according to the seed or choice of soil and amount of stocking, 
and then will lose its normal chemical elements and get weaker and 
diseased until it will die out, and be replaced after a few years—more or 
less—according to circumstances, by Holcus lanatus, or by weeds, or if the 
ground is undrained when it dies out, rushes will take its place, or as it 
requires for its healthy growth lime and potash salts, sheep feeding it off 
constantly will gradually remove in their wool and bones these elements ; 
