126 
process of nature, in one season, a thousand are supplied in the 
same space of time; and thus take possession of their natural 
soil, without the danger and inconvenience of expelling its 
usurpers. 
There has been some difference of opinion respecting the man- 
ner of reaping the produce of seedling grasses ; whether by de- 
pasturing witli sheep, or by mowing after the plants have per- 
fected their seed. The manure supplied by sheep to the young 
grasses is of great advantage ; but the animals are apt to bite too 
close to die root, and sometimes tear up the young plants alto- 
gether. I have found, on repeated trials, that cropping seedling 
grasses before they had produced flowers, had the effect of 
retarding and weakening the after-growth of the plants for that 
season very much. But after the period of flowering:, cropping 
was found to strengthen, and rather encourage the growth of 
plants. In the same way I found that old plants of grass, when 
cut very close after the first shoots of the spring made their 
appearance, afforded about one-third less weight of produce in 
the whole season than those plants of the same species which 
were left uncut till the flowering culms began to appear. As 
the advantages of the manure of the sheep may be supplied by 
top-dressing, and the disadvantages resulting to the tender seed- 
ling plants from early and close cropping cannot so speedily 
be removed, the practice of suffering the grasses to produce 
flowers before they are cut, w ith the application of top-dressings, 
and the use of the roller, till the spring of the second year, ap- 
pears to be far more profitable than the former practice of depas- 
turing the seedling grasses at an earlier period than the spring 
of the second year. But in this, no doubt, as well as in other 
particular modes of management recommended for general prac- 
tice in the culture of plants, local circumstances may interfere 
so much as often to render some modification of them necessarj\” 
Having given the general principles to be regarded in the 
production of a permanent turf, we shall now give a list of those 
species of grass, &c. which are proper for Lawns, that is, such 
as will produce a close and fine surface. As well as for forming 
a close and permanent turf, these grasses will be found admira- 
bly adapted for repairing bare and injured places in shrubberies 
and pleasure grounds, arising from shade ; but in the greatest 
part of such situations they will require to be sown annually. 
