78 Cause of the PrefereTiee for Ryegrass, 



years. But the explaBation of tlie action of the Scotcli 

 fanners really was that, while they thought they were 

 carrying out the results of a well-founded experience, 

 they were simply hlindly working by a custom which 

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

 farmer to get the largest benefit from his expenditure. 

 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 apparently inexplicable circum- 

 stance that the farmers of this country should still 

 prefer an inferior grass to a muchlsetter one — ryegrass 

 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 in 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 probably 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. 



