96 Tall Oat Grass. 



and, the reader may remember, was much esteemed 

 and largely sown by the great Arthur Young, who, 

 however, ultimately gave it up in favour of cocksfoot, 

 which, in his opinion, much exceeds it. At one time 

 the late Mr. Faunce de Laune considered Avena elatior 

 to be a grass of medium quality, but subsequently saw 

 reason to place a much higher value on this grass, 

 and states that in this view he was supported by 

 Mr. Moore, the late curator of Glasnevin. Sinclair 

 says that it " attains to maturity from seed in a very 

 short space of time, and that it is very early and 

 productive in the spring, and during the whole season 

 grows rapidly after cropping, and the culms are 

 succulent." But the produce, he tells us, " is very 

 deficient of nutritive matter, which contains an excess 

 of the bitter extractive and saline principles." There 

 can be no doubt of its value for permanent pasture, but 

 it is, in error, objected to by some for land that is ever 

 to be lifted again, because of the supposed difficulty of 

 eradicating it ; but Sinclair recommends it for alternate 

 husbandry, though in small proportion — the mixture 

 he advises being 75 per cent, of cocksfoot, while the 

 remaining 25 per cent, is to consist of hard fescue, 

 meadow fescue, rough-stalked meadow grass, tall oat 

 grass, timothy, ryegrass, and white clover. Sinclair 

 says nothing of the difficulty of eradicating this grass 

 when ploughing up, and I cannot help thinking that 

 the vainety of tall oat grass which has creeping under- 

 ground roots is the kind to which objections have 

 been raised on account of the difficulty of eradicating 

 the roots. I may also remark that Arthur Young, 

 who, as I have pointed out, at one time sowed it 

 largely, says nothing about the difficulty of destroying 

 the roots on again ploughing up the land. 



I have now considered three grasses of great import- 

 ance — cocksfoot, tall fescue, and tall oat grass — and 

 they all three possess most desirable qualities, being 

 early, drought-resisting, hardy, and productive. On 



