I42 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING, 
detected in a sample by spreading it (the sample) on a sheet of 
paper and shaking it, when the light seeds will all come to the 
surface. 
Good crested dogstail seed should weigh over 30 lb. a 
bushel, and contain about three-quarters of a million 
germinating seeds to the pound. 
Since writing the above we have again heard from Lord 
Clifton, who kindly informs us “that in his county of 
Kent the rule is to mow hay as soon as the green spikes of 
dogstail appear among the other grasses; also, that it always 
surprises his lordship to see how conspicuously these seed- 
heads show up in a stalk.” 
MeEapow FoxtaiL (ALOPECURUS PRATENSIS, LINN.). 
This grass may well be described as one of the grandest 
grasses grown. It thrives on all kinds of soil (even under 
trees), and on heavy land; it loves irrigation, but on undrained 
or water-logged soils it will not stand; for choice, it prefers a 
good retentive soil, and it makes but little headway upon poor 
or light land. 
It produces an abundance of herbage, of which all classes of 
stock are immensely fond ; it reproduces itself, and it comes a 
second, and even a third time, although the latter growths are 
not so vigorous as the former, and it is distinctly a spring 
grass. 
The greatest drawback that meadow foxtail has is that it 
takes three to four ycars in coming to full maturity, and it is 
therefore useless to sow it on temporary layers. Being the 
earliest and quickest of spring grasses, it stands frost 
admirably, also cold winds. Flowering in April or May, it is 
quite fit for hay by the middle of the latter month, and 
should prove valuable to the flockmaster if sown with a 
selection of early varieties. Z+zfodéum is almost the only plant 
