78 Causes for Preference for Ryegrass. 



arose from the length of the leases, and the desire of 

 the farmer to get the largest benefit from his expendi- 

 ture. But his action, resulting from his imperfect 

 reasoning, was wrong, for he would have obtained a 

 greater benefit by applying his lime at two different 

 periods of his lease. There, then, is an instance of the 

 so-called practical experience of the past, which is 

 too often a custom which has arisen from erroneous 

 reasoning. And when we come to consider the appar- 

 ently inexplicable circumstance that the farmers of this 

 country should still prefer a dear and inferior grass to 

 a cheaper and better one — lyegrass to cocksfoot — for 

 their temporary, and often for their permanent, pastures, 

 we shall see still greater reason for subjecting the 

 experience of the past to an extremely close scrutiny, 

 for it either may or may not be a really well-founded 

 experience. In the case of the preference for ryegrass 

 shown by most farmers, the cause, as far as I can learn, 

 seems to be mainly a purely accidental one, and the 

 subject is of such interest and importance that it may 

 be well to quote iu full a note on the point, which has 

 been sent to me by Mr. James Hunter, the well-known 

 agricultural seedsman of Chester. It is particularly 

 interesting, I think, from the concluding sentence, 

 which tells us that had not Mr. Faunce de Laune gone 

 back to Sinclair to find out the truth we should pro- 

 bably be pretty much where we were twenty years 

 ago. Mr. Hunter's note is as follows : — 



" The grass seed pamphlets of the leading seed merchants in 

 England, up to 1882, may all be said to have derived their 

 information from Lawson's ' Agrostographia ;' and, as an exces- 

 sive use of ryegrass was there recommended, the error extended 

 to all the trade pamphlets. Lawson obtained his information 

 from Sinclair, but Sinclair did not recommend the use of much 

 ryegrass. 



" In 1825, when Sinclair had finished his great experimental 

 work for tlie Duke of Bedford, and had published the second 



