62 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



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 pasture. 



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, 

 the great weight of produce, its early and late growth, and 

 the important fact that it endures the trampling of stock, are 

 all strongly in favour of sowing seed freely. 



The endurance of Rye Grass under severe treading de- 

 serves more than a mere passing mention. By the sides of 

 country roads a thick formation of turf, the envy of those who 

 wish to make a lawn, is often observable ; and this turf will 

 be found to consist almost exclusively of Rye Grass. On one 

 occasion, in company with Mr. Carruthers, we both at the 

 same instant noticed the strong development of Rye Grass at 

 the gate of one of my pastures, then laid up for hay, where 

 cattle usually congregated before milking-time in the seasons 

 when the field was grazed. Examination proved that the Rye 

 Grass was also prominent on the green path across the field. 

 Had the extraordinary growth been near the gate alone, the 

 inference might have been drawn that the increase of such a 

 gross feeder as Rye Grass was attributable to the droppings 

 from cattle kept waiting there ; but as the herbage throughout 

 the entire length of the path, which traverses several different 

 soils, is nearly all Rye Grass, it affords evidence of superiority- 

 over every other grass as to the capability of the plant for 

 enduring the tread of man and beast. This characteristic 

 accounts for the large proportion of Rye Grass in the grass 

 lands of this country which have been depastured from time 

 immemorial. 



