54 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEAEY PASTUEES. 



do SO. And the Eye Grass yields a bulk of hay during each of 

 the first two years such as could not possibly be obtained with- 

 out it. Again, the Eye Grass fosters the growth of other varieties 

 and aids the general progress and development of those grasses 

 which are slow in coming to maturity. On all these grounds I 

 advocate the use of Perennial Eye Grass seed in prescriptions for 

 permanent pastures. Even on land unsuitable for maintaining 

 Eye Grass permanently, excellent service will be rendered by the 

 plant while it lasts. On such soils it will yield up its place when 

 other kinds are sufficiently estabhshed to occupy the land, but 

 meanwhile crops of valuable herbage will be secured. 



Most of the Eye Grass seed sown in England is saved in Scot- 

 land and in the North of Ireland, and I have no doubt that its 

 acclimatisation in those cold districts tends to maintain its hardi- 

 ness and its permanency. But the popular notion that the first 

 year's crop of Perennial Eye Grass seed produces only an annual 

 plant is a mere fiction, although to ensure all the crop being the 

 perennial variety maiden seed should be rejected for permanent 

 pasture. 



For alternate husbandry Perennial Eye Grass may be re- 

 garded as indispensable for all soils. Even on land where it 

 certainly would not be permanent, it should be hberally sown for 

 a short term of years. The excellence of its herbage, the great 

 weight of produce, its early and late growth, and the fact that it 

 endures the trampling of stock, are all strongly in favour of its 

 free employment. 



Exceptionally heavy dressings of nitrogenous manures applied 

 to Eye Grass when in mixture Avith other varieties are inimical to 

 its existence because the manures enable other strong-growing 

 grasses to obtain the ascendency. But Eye Grass sown alone, or 

 when mixed with Broad Clover only, is greatly increased by the 

 application of manures, proving that the plant has no inherent 

 objection to them. Both at Chiswick where it was grown alone, 

 and at Eothamstead where it only formed a portion of the herbage, 

 nitrate of soda had a marked effect upon its growth, and the fact 



