1905.] Formation of Permanent Pastures. 



337 



alluded to by Blyth, but about the time he wrote the practice of 

 sowing perennial rye -grass must have begun. According to 

 Miller,* the earliest mention of rye-grass was in a work on 

 Oxfordshire published by Plot in 1677, but Worlidge, who is the 

 first agricultural writer to mention rye-grass, probably antici- 

 pated Plot. My copy of Worlidge's " Systema Agriculturae," 

 published in 168 1, and a third edition of a work which originally 

 appeared in 1669, contains a notice of perennial rye-grass which 

 seems to indicate that this plant was then pretty well known, 

 It is recommended for use on cold sour clay soils and also for 

 light stony uplands, and Worlidge addsj " they sometimes 

 leave it for meadow hay, it is best for horses being hard hay, and 

 for sheep if unsound it has wrought great cures. . . . 

 Some sow two bushels on a statute acre, but it is best to sow 

 three mixed with nonsuch, because of itself it is a thin spiry 

 grass and will not be of any bulk the first year unless thickened 

 by the other, which failing by degrees this grass thickens 

 upon it and lasts for ever." Worlidge claims our notice as being 

 the first writer to suggest a mixture for sowing down a perma- 

 nent pasture, and he apparently was in no doubt as to the 

 permanency of rye-grass ! Although no direct reference to the 

 practice is made by agricultural writers, it is probable that the 

 sowing of hay seeds with clover may have begun about this time, 

 for a century later, Stillingfleet,J in condemning the farmer who 

 takes " seeds indiscriminately from his own foul hay rick," 

 remarks that " arguments are never wanting in support of 

 ancient customs." 



The agriculturist of the 18th century gave more attention to 

 other fodder plants than to the grasses. The LeguminoscE which 

 we now cultivate — with the exception of alsyke and crimson 

 clover, which were not introduced until about 1830 — were well 

 known at the beginning of the 18th century, and during its 

 course, furze, burnet, and chicory were brought into prominence, 

 but it was not until near the end of the century that the grasses 

 attracted attention. Proof of this is furnished by Arthur 

 Young's description (in the " Annals of Agriculture " for 1784) 



* " Gardener's Dictionary," Martyn's Edition, 1807. Art. Lolium, 

 t p. 3 1 - 



% "Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural H '.story, Husbandry, and PhysiclV 

 3rd Edition, 1775, p, 366. 



I I 2 



