PASTURES AND PASTURE PLANTS 



CHAP. 



as being specially suitable for sowing with it ; and he advocates only a small 

 proportion being used at first, in order to allow the other grasses to develop, 

 additional Cocksfoot being sown later. Grazing cattle sometimes uproot the 

 tufts of grass, especially during periods of drought, though Sinclair observes 



that the herbage, when suffered 

 to grow old, loses half its 

 nutritive worth, and that it is 

 therefore more valuable for 

 depasturing than for hay. 

 Rank tufts, which grow beside 

 unspread droppings and are 

 therefore rejected by stock, 

 must be cut with a scythe. 

 Manuring is most profitable. 



Festuca — Fescue-Grass 



Tall Fescue-Grass {J'es- 

 tuca elatior ; Festuca arundi- 

 nacea). — Very enduring peren- 

 nial, growing in large tufts, 

 and sometimes stoloniferous ; 

 flowering in July; and ripening 

 seed at the end of August. 

 Of somewhat rank habit. Tall 

 fescue-grass produces foliage 

 very early in spring ; is highly 

 productive and nutritive ; is 

 relished by cattle ; makes good 

 quality hay, a little coarser 

 than that of Meadow fescue ; 

 and is specially adapted for 

 rich, moist soils of tenacious 

 clayey nature, moist pastures 

 near rivers and the sea-shore, 

 damp, shady woods, and simi- 

 lar positions where ordinary 

 pasture grasses do not flourish. 

 Sinclair obtained, at the time 

 of flowering, 51,046 lbs. of 

 green, or 17,866 lbs. of dried, 

 fodder, with 15,654 lbs. of green and succulent aftermath, from an acre of 

 black, rich loam. It is a valuable variety for permanent pastures for 

 grazing on low-lying, medium and strong loams, as well as on undrained 

 clays. The objection to its use is its tendency to attacks of Ergot when 

 in flower. The seed, which is usually sterile when produced in this country,, 

 and of which 52 lbs. are required to sow an acre, is a little larger than 

 those of Meadow fescue-grass and Perennial rye-grass, being distinguished 

 from them with difficulty. Good average commercial qualities should have 

 90 per cent, of purity and germination. 



The bluish-black, curved or horn-like growths, or grains in the spikes of 

 certain cereals and grasses, known as Ergot, are produced by the fungus 

 Claviceps purpurea, being, indeed, the sclerotia or resting-spores in which the 



i?f%t>y 



Cot ksfoot-Grass. 

 {Dactylis glomerata.) 



