164 



HOCKINGS' GARDEN MANUAL. 



residing in Sydney and Melbourne depend on them 

 for a supply of butter during the greater portion of 

 the year. 



A good mixture for ordinary soils (sub-soiled, and 

 manured if necessary), is— rye-grass, cocksfoot, cov>- 

 grass, ribgrass, sweet vernal, oat-grass, birdsfoot trefoil, 

 soft grass, perennial rye-grass, Alsyke clover, and prairie 

 grass. This mixture would suit both horses and cattle, 

 and give early and late feed. 



For sheep-paddocks, a little mustard-seed mixed with 

 the grasses would be beneficial, and, for stock, mix 

 some parsley. 



Mr. Moore, the Director of the Botanic Gardens, 

 Sydney, in the course of a lecture on " Structural and 

 Systematic Botany," in remarks upon the comparative 

 value of imported grasses, made the following sugges- 

 tions as to the mixtures best adapted for the different 

 soils and situations. He said : — "In the Illawarra 

 and Camden districts, whence the best dairy produce 

 was received, the farmers were not depending upon 

 Australian grass. The two most valuable grasses for 

 this colony would be the Poa pratensis and the Fes- 

 tuca pratensis. The advantage they had in this country 

 over all others was, that they would grow in the most 

 exposed situations, and the first, even under trees. 

 It would stand the hot weather even better than the 

 common couch grass, and in winter grow in great 

 luxuriance. The grasses, then, that he should recom- 

 mend were — for dry soils : Poa pratensis smooth- 

 stalked meadow grass ; Poa trivialis, rough-stalked 

 meadow grass ; anthoxanthum ooloratum, sweet vernal 

 grass ; festuca ovina, sheep fescue grass ; festuca durius- 

 cula, hard fescue grass; festuca pratensis, meadow 

 fescue grass ; festuca elatior, tall fescue grass; dactylis 

 glomerata, cocksfoot grass. For wet soils : Holcus 

 lanatus, meadow soft grass ; holcus mollis, creeping soft 

 grass ; agrostis abba, moist bent grass ; agrostis stolo- 

 nifera, creeping bent grass ; Lolium perenne var, Itali- 



