P'oa)taii, and Poa Pertitis. lOl 



season is," we are informed by Sinclair, "considerably 

 less than the amount to be obtained from cocksfoot," 

 and that, of course, is why it stands, for productive 

 purposes, 30 per cent, below that grass. According 

 to Sinclair, " this grass, under the best management, 

 does not attain to its fullest productive powers from 

 seed till four years," but later experience shows that 

 the successful cultivation of this grass largely depends 

 on the suitability of the soil and the sufficiency of 

 moisture supplied. Thus at Carbeth, Killearn, Stirling- 

 shire, meadow foxtail, sown in 1884 on a good stiffish 

 loam, yielded in 1885 (the year following the sowing 

 of the seed) such satisfactory results that it is stated 

 of this grass by Dr. Wilson, in his able report, that " of 

 all the grasses examined meadow foxtail seems to 

 combine best productiveness and nutritive qualities." 

 Though very valuable for permanent pasture, it is, 

 however, not desirable for alternate husbandry. 



I have now alluded to all the tall grasses commonly 

 used for permanent pasture — i.e., cocksfoot, tall fescue, 

 tall oat grass, timothy, meadow fescue, and meadow 

 foxtail — but there is a sixth of which I have had 

 some experience, and which, for hay in especial, seems 

 to me to be the most desirable of all the tall grasses, 

 Poa fertilis, or serotina, and Sinclair tells us that 

 " it adds much to the value of a sward from its nutritive 

 qualities and powers of early and late growth." 



Poa fertilis, or serotina (fertile or late-flowering 

 meadow grass), has for a great many years been 

 highly esteemed in the United States, and as it 

 perfects an abundance of fe^ed, and can therefore be 

 easily propagated, it seems singular that it should 

 have been neglected here. This grass is described in 

 Dr. George Vasey's work, " The Agricultural Grasses 

 of the United States," as Poa serotina, or fowl meadow 

 grass, and he tells us that the culms are from 2 to 3 

 feet high (about the highest I have grown them here), 

 and that there are some mountain forms, or varieties, 



