1920.] 



743 



early as some of the later foreign selections, both the beds and 

 the selections tending to show that the average order of 

 maturity is: — France, Denmark, United States, indigenous, 

 l^he gross produce from the indii^enous, furthermore, averaged 

 better than that from the foreign. The greatest gain, how- 

 ever, was in the aftermath cuttings, the samples from the 

 United States giving a slightly higher hay figure than the 

 indigenous. None the less, the heaviest hay yield was 

 obtained from an indigenous plot. 



These results are, of course, only to be regarded as tentative, 

 but they have been referred to as showing the gTeat difference 

 that undoubtedly exists as between different lots of the same 

 grass, and also in order to emphasise the fact that there is an 

 undoubted potential usefulness in the selected seed of our 

 indigenous herbage plants. The poorness of the French 

 samples is striking, but it must be noted that these figures are 

 based on the results of only two samples. The range of pro- 

 ductivity of all the lots is a sufficient commentary on the need 

 for devoting to herbage plants the same care as is given tq 

 cereals and roots, as even adjacent beds showed a disparity of 

 over 18 per cent. Timothy and tall oat grass appeared to 

 behave in a similar manner to cocksfoot, although the com- 

 parisons in the case of these two grasses have not yet been 

 conducted on an extensive scale, and the two lots (only) of 

 indigenous Timothy tried did not bulk as heavily as the com- 

 mercial. It has not yet been possible to make numerous dry- 

 weight estimations, and the degree of perenniality of the lots 

 under investigation can only be arrived at after a lapse of a 

 number of ^^ears.'^ The preliminary trials with crested dog's 

 tail did not show such marked differences as those referred to 

 above; indeed, the commercial lots have tended to bulk the 

 heaviest, but the highest percentage of dry matter was obtained 

 from an indigenous sample. 



Meadow foxtail was not compared with commercial strains 

 during the first year. The various indigenous lots, however, 

 exhibited considerable differences in, inter alia, the matter of 



* It would seem likely, however, that grasses grown from indigenous 

 seed, like the seed of wild whitp clover, would prove to be longer-lived than 

 plants from imported stocks. This would seem to have been so in the case 

 of some of the ryegrass strains referred to by Peter Lawson and Son, and 

 which were apparently so built up, Stapledon and Jenkin (•' Pasture 

 Problems." Jour, of Agric. Science, Vol. VIII. (1), September, 1916) have 

 shown, moreover, that perennial r} egraf^s as an indigenous self-sown plant is 

 usually much longer lived than are the plants derived from the sowing of 

 commercial seed. 



D 2 



