Experiences up to the end of October, 1904. 157 



bidding defiance to frost, and sustaining the chilling blast of the 

 east wind without fading. 



It may be of interest to mention that in Bacon's "Essays," the 

 one entitled " Of Gardens" mentions the plants which perfume the air 

 most delightfully when trodden upon and crushed. These are 

 burnet, wild thyme, and water mints. "Therefore," he says, "you 

 are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure [of the 

 perfume rising around you he means], when you walk or tread." 

 I may add thia.t we have a Shakesperean reference to burnet in 

 King Henry V., Act V., Scene II. 



The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth 

 The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover. 



of the Excessive use of Ryegrass. — It is well known 

 that almost any opinion, however unsound itmay be, is, when 

 once adopted, very hard to kill. Perhaps it is clung to 

 with all the greater persistency because in time it is often assumed 

 to be the result of a long and sound experience. The 

 clinging to ryegrass is no exception. For about 100 years the 

 objections to it have been pointed out, and attempts made to bring 

 about a decreased proportion of it in grass seed mixtures. In Keith's 

 "Agriculture of Aberdeenshire" (1811), which was a continuation 

 of Dr Anderson's original report of 1793, it was condemned as an 

 exhaustive grass, and it is recommended that landlords in their 

 leases should limit its use, while for poor land it was said to be 

 one of the worst grasses ever known. William Curtis, in his Practical 

 Observations on British Grasses — London, 1805— hits the origin of 

 its use when he says that it was owing to its being a common 

 grass, the seeds of which were easily collected. He also notices 

 that holcus lanatus was the next grass, the seeds of which were 

 collected and sown, and obviously for the same reason, like Keith, 

 he, commends ryegrass for rich meadows, but condemns its use 

 for upland pastures and dry situations. The writer of the article 

 on Pasturage and Agriculture in the " Encyclopsedia Britaiinica" 

 for 1797 considers ryegrass unfit for pastures that are to lie for more 

 than two or three years. Sinclair, as wo have seen, writing in 182?, 

 limits the use of ryegrass for permanent pasture to l-'20th of the 

 mixture, while for the alternate husbandry he advises a mixture 

 of three-fourths cocksfoot, the remainder of the mixture to consist 

 of six grasses and clovers, of which ryegrass was one. In 1833 

 Mr Lawson, of Edinburgh, took up the subject, and carries us 

 back to the original reasons for using this grass — namely, that the 

 seeds of other grasses were difficult to obtain, which they undoubtedly 

 were. The effect on British agriculture by his recommending a 

 large use of ryegrass in grass mixtures was most unfortunate, and I 

 have heard one of our most intelligent farmers say that had cocksfoot 

 been used instead of ryegrass in the rotations, their difficulties 

 would have been much lessened, for cocksfoot in three years provides 

 much vegetable matter to add to the humus of the soil, and it is 



