256 On Laying down Land to Permanent Grass. 
a remarkable contrast to this grass. Wherever the dogstail 
abounds, which it frequently does, in too large a proportion, 
the complaint will be heard that it does not do to lamb 
early, as the land will not yield early grass. It will also be 
found that, where stock fatten admirably, chiefly on this grass, 
about midsummer, they rapidly fall off if left in the pasture 
after the dogstail is ripe. Crested dogstail differs from foxtail 
not only in being later, but also in being a much smaller grass. 
Besides, its flower-heads are rarely or ever eaten by stock until 
the seed is fully ripe, so that it steadily and continually in- 
creases both by seed and root. The habits of hard fescue and 
sheep's fescue are almost identical with those of crested dogstail. 
It must therefore be evident that these three grasses, although 
useful, should be sown in much less quantities than the larger 
or coarser grasses — meadow fescue, cocksfoot, and catstail, the 
flowers of which are greedily devoured by the stock in the same 
way as foxtail. 
Cocksfoot is by far the most valuable of all grasses because it 
grows in all soils ; it produces the greatest amount of keep ; it is 
the most nutritious grass, and seems to grow faster and stronger 
in extremes of weather, either wet or dry, than any other grass. 
There is, moreover, hardly any stage of its growth in which 
stock do not eat it greedily, and its flower-heads appear to me 
to be especially nutritious to all kinds of stock, young or old, 
in excessively wet weather. Cocksfoot has no chance of seeding, 
unless there is a great abundance of it and the stock are 
running light. Cocksfoot is often objected to, as it is said that 
stock pull it up by the roots ; but it will be observed that it is not 
the centre root, but the side shoots that are lying on the ground, 
cocksfoot being different from the other permanent grasses in 
its growth ; it also shoots quicker than any other permanent grass 
after having been mown, and its long leaves may be invariably 
observed wherever it is present in a meadow after it has been 
mown for hay. On this account it is extremely objectionable 
in lawns. 
Timothy or catstail commences to grow about as early as 
cocksfoot in the spring, and bears feeding off remarkably well, 
as it seems to produce as heavy a crop in summer after having 
been fed off in the early part of May, as it would have done 
had it not been so fed off; it is, like cocksfoot, never allowed 
to seed by stock, and its flower-heads are extremely grateful, 
when the seed is ripe, to both young or old stock. This 
grass is much objected to by many on account of its apparent 
coarseness, but as all kinds of stock like it, there is no force in 
this objection. The aftermath of this grass does not appear 
so strong in growth as that of either foxtail or cocksfoot. 
