The Ilerhage of Old Grans Lnnd:^. 
445 
thoroughly clean ; the seeds were sown down with barley and grew well. 
1 did not allow either sheep or cattle upon the young grass, but mowed it 
for hay when the grasses were just coming into llower in 1886. It gave a 
heavy crop of excellent hay, and since then it has been pastured by sheep 
and cattle, eating cake most of the time. 
" The grass seeds were obtained from two of the best known English 
firms, were guaranteed pure, came iu separate bags, and were mixed under 
my own inspection. The quantities used were, per English acre : — 
lbs. I lbs. 
Meadow foxtail , ,10 Timothy .... 5 
Cocksfoot . I ,7 Red clover (perennial) . 2 
Tall fescue . i , 3 | White clover (perennial) . 2 
Meadow fescue . . 6 | Alsike clover . . .2 
V— . . ■ y- ' 
37 lbs. per acre. 
No appreciable difference, further than what might be caused by slight 
variations in the soil itself, was observed between the seeds supplied by the 
two firms. 
" To see the effect, however, of an addition of perennial ryegrass I 
added to the above seeding on one and a half acre, right across the field, 
one bushel of perennial ryegrass (weighing 26 lbs. per bushel), say about 
16 lbs, per acre. The result, broadly speaking, is that there is now no 
difference in appearance between the portion in which the ryegrass was 
sown and that where there was none. There is little ryegrass now in 
either portion — about as much in one as in the other— showing that where 
it was sown it has died out in three years to a considerable extent, and 
where none was sown a small quantity has come naturally, either from 
seeds being in the land or from falling oac of the hay chaff given the 
sheep in racks in the pasture. The natural grasses and clovers have made 
quite as good and thick pasture where the ryegrass was sown as where it 
was not, but for the first hay crop and for the after-grass, and for the next 
year's pasture, that in which ryegrass was sown was a much heavier crop. 
" The net result is that I shall never again omit, say, 14 to 16 lbs. rye- 
grass from any mixture for permanent pasture. 
" Brockley Park, Stradbally, Queen's Co. : 
July 24, 1888." 
In connection with tliis instructive record of Mr. Young's 
experience, the following extract from Mr. James A. Caird's 
paper, already referred to, is full of interest : — 
" The question as to the perennial nature of ryegrass cannot be said 
to be solved by my inquiries. The opinions are nearly equally divided. 
Some of my correspondents maintain that it dies out and utterly disappears 
in two or three years, while others believe either that it is perennial, or 
that it .seeds itself and so continues. There is, however, a nearly unani- 
mous testimony in favour of sowing it in various quantities in permanent 
grass mixtures, the object being apparently to secure a crop of some kind 
while the grasses of more tardy growth are developing." 
The results which have now been discussed are based upon 
observations made upon samples of permanent grass lands ob" 
tained from an area bounded by Lincolnshire in the north and 
Devonshire in the south, by Kent in the east and Clare and 
