AGRICULTURAL GRASSES. 57 



three to four feet. Its foliage is abundant and contains 

 much sugar; its colour is pale and yellowish. It would 

 be a very desirable grass if it would endure our climate, 

 but sea-spray being necessary to its well-being, restricts 

 its utility to island and coast culture. A peaty soil and 

 saline atmosphere are its conditions for luxuriance and 

 fertility. 



Although lawns scarcely form a branch of agriculture, 

 but belong more to the department of horticulture, yet 

 there seems much more affinity between the turf of 

 permanent pasture and that required for the lawn, than 

 between the latter and the dainty grasses cultivated in 

 the flower borders ; on this account we treat of lawn- 

 grasses among the agricultural series. 



The ' Gardener's Weekly Magazine ' says with much 

 truth, " many of our grass-lawns ought to be called 

 w T eederies ;" and truly they often consist of daisies and 

 dandelions, plantain and ranunculus. A good grass- 

 lawn is a great acquisition, and it requires art and pa- 

 tience to form one. We have seen lawns which were 

 formed at the expense of peeling the best permanent 

 pasture on the estate ; but, thanks to the experience now 

 offered by careful observers to the public, a good lawn 

 may be had at a far cheaper rate. First, then, in pre- 

 paring a lawn, the soil must be considered. The fine- 

 leaved grasses best suited for close herbage prefer a light, 

 dry, poor soil ; and if the natural soil to be treated be 

 of this description, one point is already gained. But 

 there is to be a moderation in the poverty : the grasses 

 will not bear too poor a soil, and if this be its character 

 the poverty must be corrected by occasional manuring; 

 superphosphate being the best of all dressings for pre- 

 paring the new lawn, or putting life into an exhausted 



