87 



Sundry Plants used for Grazing, 

 Feeding, or making into Hay 



ACHILLEA MILLEFOLIUM 



(Yarrow, or Milfoil). 



Although neither a grass nor a clover, but a compositaceous 

 plant, like the daisy, the tansy, and the chamomile, Yarrow 

 is such an ever-present constituent of dry pastures that it 

 naturally claims consideration here. The leaves are dense 

 and elegantly fimbriated, and the flowering time is after mid- 

 summer. The plant is strictly perennial, and multiplies itself 

 by root-growth. It appears to be independent of the presence 

 of potash in the soil, and will consequently flourish where 

 clovers can scarcely maintain existence, or fail entirely. 



Yarrow is adapted for pastures, not for meadows, and seed 

 should be excluded from the mixture for a crop that is to be 

 generally mown. Sheep are very fond of the herbage, which 

 is believed to impart an excellent flavour to mutton, venison, 

 and to butter also, notwithstanding its astringent qualities. 



On dry gravels and light sands that will hardly support 

 any other plant Yarrow will grow, and no summer is too hot 

 for it. So great is its power of enduring drought that after a 

 dry season there is always a large demand for seed, and as this 

 is difficult to obtain of reliable germination, the price runs up 

 to an extravagant figure. 



Ammonia salts appear to be inimical to the growth of 

 Yarrow, nitrate less so, but heavy doses of any ammoniacal 

 manure are certain to reduce its bulk by increasing the 



