The Management of Cocksfoot. ■ 95 



that it rises in tufts, and is apt to become coarse. 

 But this objection will apply to every grass that is 

 not sown sufficiently thick to occupy with plants 

 every spot of ground, and that is not sufficiently 

 stocked to keep the surface in a succession of young 

 leaves. It is the practice of thin sowing, and the strong 

 appearance of the plant, that occasion it to appear 

 a hassocky grass." And he Siubsequently expresses 

 the opinion that Dactylis glomerata, from its more 

 numerous merits as compared with other grasses, should 

 constitute three parts of a mixture of grasses adapted 

 for the purpose of alternate husbandry. T have now 

 a ten-year-old permanent pasture as fine as a lawn, 

 and a mass of cocksfoot grass, but then I used 16 lbs. 

 an acre of the finest seed. I have been particularly 

 struck with the value of this grass in alternate 

 husbandry in the case of the hay crop, and have 

 found that it is a far safer grass to grow than any 

 other, from its withstanding drought, and have found 

 that I have had a most luxuriant crop of hay in a 

 dry season, when my neighbours, who relied mainly 

 on ryegrass and clovers, had very poor crops. But 

 notwithstanding all that has been written in favour 

 of cocksfoot for such a number of years past, I have 

 often heard it objected to by farmers as a coarse 

 grass. It is quite true that it may become so if 

 thinly planted and badly managed ; but just as from 

 the human animal you may produce the finest kind of 

 English gentleman or the bloodthirsty cannibal, who 

 only differs from the brutes by being worse than them, 

 so there may be produced from cocksfoot a beautifuUy- 

 fine grass or a grass of the coarsest and most 

 objectionable quality. In connection with cocksfoot 

 it may be well to remind the reader that I have 

 previously pointed out that, in making a pasture, 

 regard must be had in particular to the quantity of 

 the produce of a grass, and also to the safety of 

 production from it in dry seasons. The nutritive value 



