98 The Three Most Productive Grasses. 



and white clover. Sinclair says nothing of the difficulty 

 of eradicating this grass when ploughing up, and I 

 cannot help thinking that the variety of tall oat grass 

 which has bulbous underground roots is the kind to 

 which objections have been raised on account of the 

 ■difficulty of eradicating it. I have grown the tall oat 

 grass extensively for the last twenty years, and have 

 never experienced any difficulty with it when ploughing 

 up. I may also remark that Arthur Young, who, as I 

 have pointed out, at one time sowed it largely, says 

 nothing about the difficulty of destroying the roots on 

 again ploughing up the land. 



I have now considered three grasses of great import- 

 ance — cocksfoot, tall fescue, and tall oat grass — and 

 they all three possess most desirable qualities, being 

 early, drought-resisting, hardy, and productive. On 

 reference to the table of relative productiveness {vide 

 Appendix I.), the reader will see that they stand at 100, 

 while two of the other tall grasses — timothy and Italian 

 ryegrass — stand at 75, while meadow fescue and 

 meadow foxtail — the two remaining tall grasses — only 

 attain a proportion of 70. The first three "grasses are 

 thus 25 per cent, more productive than the secondly 

 mentioned grasses, and 30 per cent, more than the 

 last two alluded to. This question, then, naturally 

 arises — Why should we not use the first three grasses 

 exclusively for the large grasses of the pasture? Add 

 to them rough-stalked meadow grass, and golden oat 

 grass to fill up the bottom of the pasture, and also 

 chicory, burnet, yarrow, and kidney vetch, sheep's 

 parsley, and some lucerne — when the soil and climate 

 are favourable to the last — alsike, late fiowering red 

 clover, and white clover. The mixture would then con- 

 sist of thirteen or fourteen different kinds of plants, and 

 supply that variety of food which is always so welcome 

 to stock, and indeed to all graminivorous animals from 

 elephants to mice. In these days, when farming profits 

 are small at the best, and it is always a matter of doubt 



