AGRICULTURAL GRASSES 53 



for not using it. In the best sense of the term Rye Grass is 

 cheap as compared with many natural grasses, but surely this is 

 a special argument in its favour. It is quite true that Festuca 

 pratensis possesses many of its good qualities and excels it in 

 aftermath, but the difference in price is considerable, and the 

 Fescue is distinctly inferior in nuti-itive qualities, except in its 

 early stage of growth. 



One of the main reasons for including Perennial Rye Grass 

 in mixtures for permanent pastures is its reliability, already 

 alluded to, for ensuring a plant. This is a matter of great 

 importance, for if grasses do not fill the ground in the first 

 season, weeds will inevitably appear. And the Rye Grass 

 yields a bulk of hay during the first two years which cannot 

 be obtained without it. Again, Rye Grass fosters the growth 

 of other varieties and aids the general progress and develop- 

 ment of such grasses as are slow in attaining maturity. 

 For all these reasons I advocate the use of Perennial Rye 

 Grass seed in prescriptions for permanent pastures. On land 

 which cannot maintain Rye Grass permanently, excellent 

 service will be rendered while it lasts, and the plant will yield 

 up its place when other grasses are sufficiently established 

 to occupy the soil. JNIeanwhile crops of valuable herbage wUl 

 be secured. 



Most of the Rye Grass seed sown in England is saved in 

 Scotland and in the North of Ireland, and I have no doubt 

 that its acclimatisation in those cold districts tends to maintain 

 its hardiness and its permanency. The popular notion that the 

 first year's crop of Perennial Rye Grass seed produces only an 

 annual plant is a mere fiction, but to ensure a crop consisting 

 exclusively of the true perennial variety it is necessary that 

 maiden seed should be rejected for permanent pastm-e. 



For alternate husbandry Perennial Rye Grass is indis- 

 pensable, whatever the soil may be. Even on land where the 

 plant certainly would not be permanent, seed should be liberally 

 sown for a short term of years. The excellence of the herbage, 



