On a Variety of Italian Bye- Grass. 



573 



only apology I shall offer for troubling them a second time on 

 that subject. 



In the first instance, I had to communicate a new method of 

 cultivating a peculiar plant, the result of which was as startling as 

 it was new, whereby nine or ten crops of excellent green food had 

 been obtained between March and December ; being cut in the 

 former month and watered with liquid manure, consisting of one- 

 third of pure horse urine and two-thirds of water, distributed 

 from a London street water-cart passing once over the plant 

 immediately after the grass was cut, one watering being suffi- 

 cient for one crop. That report created considerable interest, 

 and induced noblemen, gentlemen, farmers, and traders to test 

 the system with the same object, the result of whose practice 

 upon various soils, with different treatment, I now purpose to lay 

 before the readers of the Journal, feeling assured there is matter 

 well worth the consideration of practical agriculturists. I thinli 

 it important that all the information I have been able to collect, 

 bad as well as good, should be set forth ; if, therefore, my paper is 

 somewhat tedious to read, it may be a palliation to know it was 

 much more troublesome to collect. 



The method I then recommended was to prepare the land by 

 ploughing, cleaning, and reducing it to a fine surface in the 

 month of August or September, to sow by a broadcast machine 

 two bushels of seed per acre (three, I think, is better, sown at 

 twice by crossing the land with one bushel and a half each way), 

 or four bushels per acre by the hand, to harrow lightly in, hand- 

 w^eed the first growth, and, as soon as there was about 18 inches 

 of grass, to cut it for green food ; watering the plant with the 

 liquid day by day immediately after the grass was removed, and 

 so continue to cut and water, cut and water, from March till 

 November. The plant is a biennial ; after two years the land 

 may be ploughed and re-sovrn if required : it wdll be seen in how 

 few instances this plan has been adopted, and, when it has, in 

 almost every case, in all kinds of soils, success has followed the 

 operation. 



I have applied to about 90 persons, to whom I supplied seed, 

 for information, and have received 44 answers ; 12 of which 

 give no information at all, and so must be omitted. 



I shall now proceed to the details, classing the reports into 

 soils and subsoils, showing the means used and the amount of 

 produce obtained : — 



1. Sa?id upon Limestone. — Shallow and hot; entirely failed. — 



Hon. P. J. PlERREPONT. 



2. Sown August ; no manure, no urine ; first crop 3 feet high in 

 May ; second, 2 feet 6 inches first week in August. — llev. Thomas 

 Cator. 



