SOWING GRASS SEEDS 91 



when a hot diy summer has scorched the hfe out of a spring 

 plant. This is one of the many misfortunes to which the 

 agriculturist is liable, but it does not touch the point now 

 under consideration. 



Were aU the land of the United Kingdom light, probably 

 the question would never have arisen. There would have been 

 a general consensus of opinion in favour of spring sowing. It 

 is the extreme difficulty of making heavy land ready for grass 

 seeds before the spring is too far advanced which renders the 

 state of the weather of so much more importance when sowing 

 grasses than when sowing any other seed. Sometimes it is 

 absolutely impossible to thoroughly pulverise a tenacious soil 

 until JNlay is far gone, and then it is very risky indeed to 

 put in grass seeds. Thus late summer or so-called autumn 

 sowing becomes imperative. Having reached this conclusion, 

 it is satisfactory to remember that in addition to the chance it 

 affords of making a thoroughly sound seed-bed, the tempera- 

 ture of the land in autumn is highly favom-able to the 

 germination of grass seeds, particularly in the North of 

 England. Further benefit is to be derived from the clearing 

 of successive crops of annual weeds, most of which would 

 have appeared among the grasses of an earUer sowing. 



The danger of an autumn sowing mainly concerns the 

 clovers. Young grasses, especially of the stronger varieties, 

 will stand much winter cold with impunity. Not so the 

 clovers, although when estabhshed they also will endure 

 severe weather unharmed. While young, a wet cold winter 

 will almost certainly make an end of them. A i-etentive soil 

 fosters a magnificent pasture containing plenty of clovers when 

 once the plants are matured. Yet on such soils it frequently 

 proves extremely difficult to obtain clovers from a sowing of 

 seed in autumn. 



As to the best month for autumn sowmg, it must not be 

 forgotten that grass seeds are peculiarly liable to be ' malted ' 

 under a burning sun when the ground is not moist enough to 



