HORTUS ORAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



Of the Grasses^ and other Plants^ tvhich constitute the Produce of 



the richest Natural Pastures. 



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It has long been a prevailing opinion, that rich pasture land, when once Broken up for a 



course of crops, cannot for a great length of time be again brought to so good a sward ; and 



this opinion is founded on the best grounds— on experience. The causes why those grasses, 



which constitute this valuable sward, cannot be renewed in as great perfection after a few years' 



removal fj-om their natural soil, must either be, that these plants require many years to attain 



to that degree of productiveness, or, that the soil has been too much deteriorated by the crop, 



or course of grain crops, taken previous to renewing the grasses ; or, lastly, that the seeds of 



grasses different from those which composed the valuable sward, have been employed in their 



ler to one, or all of these points, the want of success is to be imputed, it is of 

 miportancc to encjuire. 



Grasses, like all other vegetables, possess a peculiar life, in which various periods may be 

 distmctly marked. Some species of grass are annual, or arrive at perfection in one year, and 

 then die away ; as different species of brome-grass, fox-tail grass, rye-grass, oat-grass, &c. 

 ^ ' er species, in two or three years attain to that degree of perfection which they never 

 exceed; as perennial rye-grass, ( LoUum perenne ) ; rough meadow-grass, (Poa frtvialis); mea- 

 dow cat's-tail grass, (Phleum prateme)i tall oat-like soft-grass, (Holcus avenaceus); round 

 cock's-foot grass, (Bactylis glomerata), &c. ; and there are but few grasses that require five or six 

 years to bring them to that state of productiveness which they never exceed, if properly treated 

 dunng that time: meadow fescue, (Festuca prateiisisj; meadow foxtail, ( Alopecurus pratensis); 



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These facts, obtained from the results of ex- 



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periments, and attentive observation, made on these grasses, when cultivated singly, and also 

 when combmed with others, as in their natural places of growth, offer sufficient proofs to de- 

 cide that It is not the great length of time they require to arrive at perfection, that the want of 

 success, in attempts to renew rich pastures, is to be imputed. 



On converting this land into tillage, the first crops are, generally, too luxuriant. Were we 



e, irom this circumstance, that the superior pasture grasses require a much richer 

 soil to produce them in perfection, than what is required for the production of grain crops, 

 and, consequently, that a course of white crops, by lessening considerably this degree of ferti- 

 'ty, would proportionally render the land less fitted for the re-production of its former valu- 

 grasses, it would not be just; because it is evident this over-richness of the land for the 



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