26 
Grass Experiments at Wohurn. 
In 1888 all the grasses considerably increased the weight of 
food produced. This increase was so remarkable in the timothy 
and foxtail that they made up not only for the deficiency of the 
first year, but in the totals of the two years each grass went 
beyond the totals of each of the ryegrasses. The cocksfoot, 
meadow fescue, and tall fescue increased in the second year at 
a considerably greater rate than the ryegrasses. And the result 
of the two years' growth shows that the three grasses just named 
produced above a half more food (52 per cent.) than the aggre- 
gate of the three ryegrasses. 
Quantity calculated for an Acre of the total Green Produce of each 
Grass in both Plots in Stackyard and Warren Fields. 
1887 
1888 
Rate o£ 
increase 
Total of 
1887 and 1888 
tons cwts. qrs. lbs. 
tons cwts 
qrs. lbs. 
per cent. 
tons cwts. qrs. lbs. 
Italian ryegrass . . 
2 
12 
0 
24 
3 
5 
0 24 
25 
5 17 1 20 
"Annual " ryegrass . 
2 
13 
2 
24 
3 
6 
0 0 
23 
5 19 2 24 
Perennial ryegrass . 
2 
9 
2 
8 
3 
1 
3 12 
25 
5 11 1 20 
2 
5 
0 
8 
3 
15 
3 20 
68| 
6 10 0 
Cocksfoot .... 
3 
16 
1 
20 
5 
14 
3 4 
50 
9 11 0 24 
Meadow fescue . . 
3 
3 
0 
6 
4 
7 
0 16 
38 
7 10 0 22 
Tall fescue . . . 
3 
10 
3 
12 
5 
18 
0 24 
67 
9 9 0 8 
o 
4 
0 
0 
4 
9 
0 16 
103 
6 13 0 16 
The Table shows that a pasture containing fair proportions 
of cocksfoot, meadow fescue, and tall fescue will in the first 
year yield a larger bulk of food than can be produced by rye- 
grass alone. It must be noted that influences producing a 
meagre and irregular crop in 1886, the year in which the seeds 
were put in, affected equally the ryegrasses and the other 
grasses. The gain in the production of food by the use of the 
perennial grasses is, however, much greater in the second year. 
It would not, however, be proper to estimate the value of 
the food only by the bulk produced. A meadow consisting 
mainly of Yorkshire fog, which unhappily is not uncommon, 
would be, no matter how heavy the yield, of small feeding value. 
Even the chemical composition of the plants may be misleading, 
for, however large a proportion of assimilable carbohydrates and 
jDroteid compounds are discovered in a plant, they can be of 
no economic use if the stock refuse to eat the plant. The first 
real step in the investigation of the different grasses and other 
fodder plants must be made by observing what are selected by 
the stock. The attention of Linne was directed to this matter 
when he was travelling in Dalarue in 1734. Fifteen years after- 
wards he published in his Pan Suecus an account of more than 
two thousand experiments made to discover what plants were 
