66 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



rapid succession ; and the plant is so hardy as to endure our 

 coldest winters without injury, while it starts earlier in spring 

 and grows later in autumn than any other grass. 



Italian Rye Grass is so much preferred by stock, that when 

 a two years' ley which contains it is fed off, the cattle will not 

 allow a single flower-stem to ripen. The forage promotes a 

 great flow of milk, and improves the flavour of butter and 

 cheese. The celebrated Parmesan cheese is said to be made 

 from the milk of cows fed entirely on Italian Rye Grass. 



No wonder, therefore, that with such remarkable qualities 

 the plant should have been recommended and used for per- 

 manent pastures, although nearly every authority has pro- 

 nounced it unsuitable for that purpose. Italian Rye Grass is 

 so gross a feeder as actually to choke and smother the Poas and 

 finer Fescues, instead of simply nursing and sheltering them 

 from scorching heat and severe frost as does the comparatively 

 slower-growing Perennial Rye Grass. Valuable as Italian is 

 for alternate husbandry in the company of other strong-growing 

 grasses, such as Cocksfoot and Timothy, I have always objected 

 to its use in permanent pastures, even during the years when 

 the contrary custom prevailed. This view is now admitted to 

 be sound, and the circumstances must be altogether excep- 

 tional which warrant the admixture of any proportion of the 

 seed in a prescription for permanent pasture. 



With singular inconsistency, some writers who disapprove 

 of Italian Rye Grass in a mixture of permanent grasses, advo- 

 cate its employment for renovating an old pasture. A more 

 illogical proposition has never been made. When the brief 

 existence of Italian Rye Grass terminates, the pasture will be 

 left in a worse state than before. 



There is a prejudice against this grass because it severely 

 taxes the soil, and it is quite true that Italian Rye Grass will 

 appropriate all the nourishment it can get. But that is an 

 argument in its favour. It means that the plant is a powerful 

 agent in extracting constituents from the soil, which it yields 



