AGEICULTURAL GRASSES. 43 



pratensis is indicated for best lowland pastures not liable to 

 floods.' Scarcely any grass equals this for land under irrigation, 

 although it is entirely unsuited to a water-logged soil. 



Some writers have recommended Meadow Fescue for one or 

 two years' leys, but as it requires three years to attain maturity, 

 I cannot advise the sowing of it for less than three or four years. 

 I regard it as a landlord's grass, to be used principally for per- 

 manent pastures. 



Festuca pratensis is a midsummer grass, rarely flowering 

 until the end of June, or ripening seed until the first week in 

 August. The ripening of seed lowers the nutritive quality, but 

 it does not greatly diminish the bulk. Sinclair's experiments 

 proved that between the time of flowering and the perfecting of 

 seed the depreciation in feeding value was very serious indeed. 

 But there is no need to anticipate loss on this ground, because, 

 being a late-flowering species, the hay is almost always cut 

 before the danger becomes imminent. One other point deserves 

 mention here. In early districts, where hay is cut in the first 

 or second week of June, this grass will not be at its best, and 

 therefore it should be sown more sparingly than where the hay 

 harvest occurs about midsummer. 



The introduction of Meadow Fescue into America in recent 

 years furnishes another example of an alteration in character 

 which such a change sometimes brings about. The time of 

 flowering is much earlier there, the plant thrives at a higher 

 altitude, and it often grows four feet high, instead of only about 

 two feet high as in England. In East Tennessee it flourishes 

 and makes superior hay at 1,500 feet above the sea level. 

 The verdant growth during winter in North Carolina has 

 secured for it the name of ' Evergreen Grass,' and in Virginia it 

 is known as ' Kandall Grass.' 



In habit Meadow Fescue resembles true Perennial Eye Grass, 

 but the herbage of the former is more leafy, and the seed-culms 

 fewer. On light thin soils, and at altitudes where Festuca pra- 

 tensis is unsuitable, an additional quantity of true Perennial Eye 



