100 
Improvement of the Plants of the Farm. 
decided improvement. A large farmer in the fens took me 
over his fields of this new kind of Italian rye-grass early in 
August. The whole of it had been cut for seed, and the shocks 
were still standing in the field waiting for fine weather, while 
a thick aftermath of spreading leaves already covered the surface. 
In this growth of a good bottom grass it resembles the old Pacey 
varieties. It is said that the growth of lucerne is extending, 
and that that plant was always grown in the fens ; but my 
friend, who is experienced and by no means over-sanguine, 
believes that the new Italian rye-grass, with the only fault of 
that famous forage plant removed, will drive it from the field. 
The same gentleman once observed in one of his fields of 
Italian rye-grass a " sport" which grew with its stems branch- 
ing from the ground, but on sowing the seed the peculiarity 
was unfortunately not reproduced. He is, however, a firm 
believer in the value of the novelty I have just described, of 
which I will only say further what a correspondent says of cow- 
grass, and which in fact may be said of anything promising 
which persons of repute may advertise, that it is worth a trial, 
that is, a comparative and competitive trial. " Farmers," says 
a valued correspondent, himself a tenant farmer, " do not 
enough compare different varieties under identical circum- 
stances." 
The importance of forage plants for folding, soiling, or for 
hay has increased, and the seedsmen are engaged in their 
improvement, and have already made a good beginning. 
About thirty-five years ago Trifolium incarnatum was grown 
in Surrey by my father and others, who welcomed it' as a useful 
forage for sheep and horses, with one fault, — it remained in 
perfection only about a fortnight from the opening of the 
blossom to the hardening of the seed. As it was a garden 
plant grown for the beauty of its crimson flowers, and as almost 
anything can be done by practised horticulturists in the modi- 
fication of plants, later varieties, or sub-varieties of trifolium 
have been forthcoming, and those who farm within the limits 
suited to this crop, extending perhaps fifty miles north of the 
Thames, or further on warm soils, or in favoured spots, may 
have the use of trifolium during about six weeks. A sheep 
farmer on the deep diluvial soil of the coast of Sussex, near 
Worthing, where the plant grows in perfection, informs me 
that he now has it during six weeks. On the 16th of June this 
year, Messrs. Sutton showed me four samples of trifolium 
grown in their trial-grounds, under precisely similar circum- 
stances, of which the earliest crimson was out of blossom at 
that date and the heads hard with seed ; while two other sorts, 
crimson and white, were twelve or fourteen days later, the 
