E-ffect of the Roots of Plants on the Soil. 81 



" Taking it for granted, then, that there are other grasses, 

 superior in many respects to the Bay-Grass, this question 

 naturally arises — How comes it that they have not found their way 

 into general use ? To this it may be answered, improvements in 

 any science, but more especially in Agriculture, are slow in their 

 advances ; and, perhaps, no class of men adheres more pertina- 

 ciously to old prejudices than the farmer." 



It is '-nportant to observe that Sinclair not only 

 restilcbd the use of ryegrass to about one-twentieth 

 of the mixture he thinks advisable for permanent 

 pasture, but recommends its use, though in small propor- 

 tion, for alternate husbandry. For the latter he advises 

 a mixture containing no less than three-fourths of 

 cocksfoot, while hard fescue, meadow fescue, rough- 

 stalked meadow grass, tall oat-like grass, timothy, 

 ryegrass, and clover should make up the remainder of 

 the mixture, or, to use his exact words, "should be 

 used in smaller proportion." But neither Sinclair 

 (though he alludes to the superiority of cocksfoot to 

 ryegrass as being less impoverishing to the soil, and 

 affording a greater quantity of vegetable matter when 

 ploughing up) nor my late friend, Mr. Faunce de Laune 

 (though the latter did allude to the question of the 

 disintegration of the soil as a subject which had not 

 been suflB.ciently studied) have at all attempted to 

 regulate the mixture they propose with reference to 

 the effect of the roots of plants in keeping open and 

 deeply aerating the soil. And, as we have seen, to 

 find any account of such a mixture having been advised 

 in the past we have to go back more than a century — to 

 Arthur Young, who had reconxmended the use of plants 

 that would have this very important effect on the soil, 

 though I may observe he did not allude to this, either 

 because he thought it too obvious to be wortli mentioning, 

 or because he had not taken the point into consideration. 



I have now to observe that if the conclusions I have 

 arrived at are correct — i.e., that a grass mixture should 

 consist of the seeds of plants, some of which are of 



