250 BRITISH GRASSES. 



and stems are highly nutritious in their early state, but 

 when old and rank their nourishment is reduced by 

 half. Hence it is better for pasture than for hay, as the 

 constant cropping secures a frequent succession of young 

 herbage. It is valuable also for hay, and superior, in 

 the opinion of Mr. Sinclair, to the Rye-grass. It does 

 best in deep soil, as its roots strike deep. If allowed to 

 grow very high, it becomes very coarse ; but when kept 

 down by frequent cutting, or well grazed, it affords first- 

 rate food for sheep. In an essay on grass- land, inserted 

 in the Communications to the Board of Agriculture, it 

 is stated that women and children make good earnings 

 by gathering the seed of this grass at 4s. a bushel. 

 Farmers are recommended to sow two bushels in an acre 

 with 10 lbs. of red clover; by the time the clover is worn 

 out, the grass fills the land. It is not necessary to col- 

 lect the seed in this manner now, as Messrs. Wheeler, 

 and many other seedsmen, have it ready in stock ; it is 

 also thought very preferable to sow it with equal quan- 

 tity of other grass seeds : in this way the most superior 

 permanent pastures are formed. In the Norfolk Re- 

 port on Agriculture, 1788, we read that "Sir Mordaunt 

 Martin, observing, by an experiment, that this grass 

 grew four inches in less than three days, determined to 

 attend more particularly to it; he remarked that when 

 sheep were let out of a fold, they ran over everything to 

 get at a balk that was full of it, and ate it in prefer- 

 ence to other grasses. In some parts of Norfolk* it is 

 called cows' grass, from their being very fond of it. He 

 began to cultivate it in 1794. It grows at Midsummer, 

 in a drought, when everything else is burnt up. He 

 sows it with Nonsuch, instead of Ray-grass, and finds it 

 much more profitable. Mr. Overman, also, observing 



