50 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEAEY PASTUEES. 



Fescue, and produces an abundance of small herbage which fills 

 up the bottom of a pasture, and also renders it serviceable in 

 ornamental grounds. It flowers in June, ripens seed at the middle 

 of July, and is one of the few grasses which improve as they get 

 older, the leaves and stems being actually more nutritious, as well 

 as of suj)erior bulk, at the time of ripening seed than earlier in the 

 season. All cattle like it, and it is so great a favourite with hares 

 that a quantity should be grown where this game is preserved 

 in large numbers. For hay it is of small utility, and the latter- 

 math is inconsiderable, Eed Fescue must be regarded as exclu- 

 sively a pasture grass. Sinclair believed it to attain perfection 

 in the second year, and limited its duration to seven or eight 

 years. 



The seed is larger than that of Festuca cluriuscula, and 

 germinates well — decidedly better in the open air than under 

 artificial conditions. 



Lolium perenne {Perennial Rye Grass). — An American 

 writer enumerates between sixty and seventy varieties of Eye 

 Grass, but no great experience is needed to discover that in 

 so long a list there are more names than sorts. The majority 

 are mere synonyms ; others are selections having no permanent 

 character ; so that for practical purposes the number may be 

 reduced to about half a dozen. There are two well-defined types : 

 one, a strong-growing plant represented by Pacey's Perennial ; 

 the other a dwarf branching variety represented by Sutton's 

 Perennial. Both these sections are legitimately and profitably 

 employed in the formation of permanent pastures. 



Lolium perenne was the first grass gathered separately for 

 agricultural purposes. It is better known and more frequently 

 used than any other variety, and notwithstanding recently ex- 

 pressed opinions that it is biennial and not perennial, I am satis- 

 fied that it is entitled to the name by which it has been known 

 since 1611, the date of the earliest agricultural book which men- 

 tions it. That this grass is not perennial on aU soils, nor under 



