1920.] Grass and Clover Seed Growing. 545 



is not always an easy matter. There is an adage in Ayrshire 

 to the effect that " the more you lose the more you get," that 

 is to say, the crop must stand until the seed is ready to drop 

 from the straw without much shaking. In a wet season in the 

 fens, it is sometimes necessary to thresh the stooks by hand in 

 the field when it is impossible to get them dry enough to stack. 

 In Ayrshire it is not usual to stack Ryegrass at all, but to thresh 

 straight from the rickles (pikes). An average crop from the first 

 cut of a first year's growth of Italian in the fens is about 8 bags 

 of 140 lb. each, or rather more. The autumn cut will yield 

 some further 3 bags. In Scotland an average crop of Perennial 

 is expected to yield about 8 cwt. of seed per acre. 



It is desirable that a uniform system of buying and selling 

 ryegrass should be set up. The present system where some 

 sales are made by weight and others by volume, is not always 

 conducive to high bushel weight. 



Timothy. — By far the major part of our Timothy seed is 

 Scottish; the carses of Gowrie and Stirling produce large 

 quantities, and Ayrshire proportionally rather less. One of the 

 main factors in cultivating Timothy for seed is cleanliness ; a 

 good clean Timothy ley may be kept down as long as 25 years, 

 but unless the land is very clean to begin with and good seasons 

 follow, this is not often possible. In bad circumstances crops 

 may have to be ploughed out at the end of half a dozen years. 

 Timothy is a rank crop which calls for liberal manuring; if a 

 crop is well treated in this respect, seed may be taken from it 

 every year after the first. Timothy is rather earlier to harvest 

 in the east of Scotland than in the west, probably on account of 

 the lower rainfall. A clean crop may be cut with a binder. 

 Stacks are made in some cases but not in all, and an acre 

 should yield some 4 cwt. of seed from an average crop. On 

 stronger land 5 cwt. may fairly readily be obtained. 



Crested Dogstail. — As a constituent of permanent mixtures 

 Crested Dogstail has latterly come into rather more favour than 

 it enjoyed a few years ago, and it seems likely that the demand 

 for it will increase, at any rate, for a short while. At present 

 very little Dogstail is grown in Great Britain, the crops which are 

 produced being frequently a by-product from another crop. The 

 Kentish Wild White Clover pastures, for instance, produce a 

 eertain amount of Dogstail mixed with the Wild White, and it is 

 a common practice to separate the grass when threshed from the 

 ■clover, and to re-dress and market it. There are no districts of 



