252 On Laying down Land to Permanent Grass. 
were aroused about the others, and I sent some of the seed that 
was left to be examined by Mr. Carruthers. To my great amaze- 
ment I was told that the meadow fescue was all rye-grass, and 
the rough meadow grass all smooth meadow grass. There was 
nothing left for it but in the best way possible to destroy all the 
grass, and resow it. The question might be fairly asked. Why 
not prosecute the firm for damages ? The answer is this. 
Unless a purchaser of seeds suspects the seller, and has witnesses, 
it is difficult to prove the dishonesty. The seller may pay 
back a portion of the money charged for the seed rather than risk 
the exposure. It is not easy to make him pay consequential 
damages. 
For my own instruction, and that of my friends, I divided a 
lot of four acres of clean poor land into five strips, and sowed 
foxtail, cocksfoot, catstail, crested dogstail, and meadow fescue 
separately in each strip ; the foxtail was sown very thick, at the 
rate of 50 lbs. per acre, but only a few plants came up. The 
cocksfoot came up fairly ; the catstail very well ; the crested 
dogstail was a very thin plant, with four-fifths soft woolly grass, 
and the meadow fescue half rye-grass, while a piece of land 
left unsown grew no grass. I afterwards had the seed examined, 
and found only 35 per cent, of the crested dogstail good, and 
20 per cent, of the foxtail. I have, since these experiments, 
never sown any seed except after the sample had been examined 
by Mr. Carruthers, and have, in consequence, obtained results 
most satisfactory to myself. By further experiments I have 
found that it is not sufficient to trust to having only the samples 
supplied by seedsmen examined, as they have been commonly 
better than the bulk ; and also that it is not safe to have only 
some sacks of seed examined, but every single sack must be 
examined separately, and the seed taken from different parts of 
each sack ; the sack ought then to be sealed and locked up, and 
an agreement made with the seed-merchant, that the seed is to 
be returned if the result of the examination is not sufficiently 
satisfactory. Many purchasers of seed no doubt may object to 
so much trouble, but I can assure them — and the results of Mr. 
Carruthers' experiments will corroborate what I say — that it is 
useless attempting to lay down land for permanent pastures 
unless the greatest care is taken with the seed. I regret to say 
that there is no seed-merchant I would trust sufficiently to use his 
seed without Mr. Carruthers' examination. These remarks may 
be thought too severe, but it must be remembered that this is my 
personal experience, and not only my experience on my own 
land, but on that of many others. 
To make myself certain on this matter, I requested a friend to 
order the mixtures from four of the greatest seed-merchants in 
