r>6 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
April 28. 
practised these hundred years.’ In 1744, William Ellis, a 
Herefordshire farmer, published his ‘ Modern Husbandman, j 
in which he claims the merit of introducing the culture of i 
the wild ‘ thetch-grass,’ or mouse-tare, and the 1 lady finger- j 
grass,’ or bird’s foot trefoil, which he ‘ affirms for truth are 
the two best sorts of natural meadow-grasses that are lor 
feeding and fattening of conies, deer, race-liorses, or any 
other sort of cattle that will eat them in grass or hay; 
and adds, that ‘ if gentlemen knew the value ot them they 
would have no occasion for searching after a foreign spurry 
seed, which I have experienced exceeds all others for its i 
j worthless nature,’ from which, and other passages, it appears ; 
' that the culture of spurry was introduced from Holland j 
j about 1740. And the same author mentions, that he ‘ had 
heard of a gentleman in a distant country who had sowed j 
the plantain-seed,’ or rib-grass, but was unable to state the ; 
results; which seems the first notice taken by English 
writers of a plant, that afterwards received much more 
attention, than, in the present opinion of agriculturists, its 
| merits ever deserved. In the ‘Farmer’s Complete Guide,’ 
' published in 1700, attention is directed to the 4 new lucerne,’ 
j or sickle-podded medick, which the writer states to be ‘ a 
| native of Herefordshire, and the adjoining counties, but 
where it is by no means common ; ’ and further adds, that 
‘ the Swedes derive great advantages from its culture.’ Suc¬ 
ceeding authors relate that burnet was first grown as a field 
plant in 1760, or 1761, by Mr. B. Rocque, of Walham Green, 
i at the suggestion of Mr. Peter Wyche, to whom belongs 
! the merit of introducing from America, about that time, the 
j timothy-grass, first so named in Carolina, from having been 
j taken to that State by a Mr. Timothy Hanson ; from which 
country the culture of the orchard grass, or cocks-foot, was 
also introduced shortly afterwards; the same Mr. Itocque 
having grown it in 1764. 
“ From the preceding, it will he observed with what 
avidity the earlier cultivators sought our herbage and forage 
‘ grasses,’ as they termed them, among the leguminoste and 
other corollaceous plants, and with what seeming care they 
eschewed the true grasses; their often-repeated reason for 
which was, that ‘ these produced many small hair-like roots 
which filled the soil, and, therefore, could not be but very 
impoverishing and hurtful thereto;’ without considering 
that the then very common practice of cropping a field, as 
long as it would recompense their labours, and afterwards 
letting it alone for some years to recover under a crop of 
unsown grass, was of itself a perfect contradiction to their 
false theory. 
“ As an approximation, however, to a more improved 
system, some recommended sowing, for permanent pasture, 
seeds shaken out of the best natural meadow-hay, along 
with the clovers; without considering that, as the* different 
species composing such hay did not ripen their seeds 
simultaneously, only a partial reproduction of these species 
could be expected. But the recommendations of Stilling- 
fieet, in 1759, and others immediately thereafter, to cul¬ 
tivate certain of the most useful grasses, as the crested 
dog’s-tail, sweet vernal, meadow fox-tail, meadow fescue, 
sheep’s fescue,rough and smoothed-stalked meadow-grasses, 
&c., by growing their seeds separately ; and the successful 
introduction from America of the Timothy and cocksfoot, 
directed the attention of practical agriculturists to a new 
source whence to procure a further accession to their hay 
and pasture plants ; and likewise suggested to agricultural 
writers the expediency of adopting different terms to dis¬ 
tinguish between the clovers and true grasses. Accordingly, 
we find that, after that period, they generally denominate 
the former artificial grasses, and the latter natural grasses. 
“In 1761, Mr. Aldworth, of Stanslake, collected, at the 
suggestion of Mr. Stillingfleet, fully a bushel of the seed of 
the crested dog’s-tail grass; and that author mentions 
having himself ‘procured a sufficiency of the same seed, 
as well as that of the creeping bent, fine bent, sheep’s 
j fescue, Ac., to begin a stock with.’ In the same year, the 
broad-leaved everlasting pea, was grown by a gentleman 
who, in the 4 Museum Rusticum,’ published in 1765, states 
that he then sowed a rood of it, ‘which yielded a great deal 
of feed much relished, both in a green and dried state, by 
horses and cattle.’ In 1766, a prize of <£5 was awarded by 
the London Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manu¬ 
factures, and Commerce, to Mr. W. Judge, Woodford, 
Essex, ‘ for gathering by the hand the seeds of meadow 
foxtail grass;’ as also X‘5 and X3 3s. to Mr. E. Birch, 
Somerset, and William Gosse, Hants, for collecting, in like ; 
manner, the seeds of crested dog’s-tail grass ; and in the | 
following year Mr. Gosse received two further premiums for 
gathering seeds of the meadow fescue and sweet vernal I 
grasses. The same Society, in 1768, offered a premium of j 
,T 10 ‘ for the greatest quantity of land (not less than one 
acre) of vernal grass-seed, sown in drills ; ’ and their gold 
medal was further offered, in 1769, ‘ to the person who ! 
should give the most satisfactory account of the different 
properties and comparative value of any two or more of the 
several natural grasses.’ 
“ By earlier authors, yarrow or milfoil was generally in¬ 
cluded among pernicious weeds; but a writer in the ‘De Be 
Bustica,’ published in 1769, strongly recommends the j 
sowing of it in sheep pastures. About 1780, Mr. Boys, a 
farmer of high reputation in Kent, commenced the culture 
of the rough-stalked meadow-grass; having had, in 1785, 
from twenty to thirty bushels of its seed for sale, which he j 
offered at 3s. per pound ; but was obliged to drop its culture j 
from want of demand. Marshall, in his 4 Rural Economy 1 
of Yorkshire,’ published in 1788, states, that ‘white or 
meadow soft grass,’ now better known by the name of York¬ 
shire fog, ‘ was formerly in high esteem, being cultivated 
separately, and thrashed like corn for its seeds; but it was 
far from being an eligible grass for cultivation, the growers 
of the seeds being the only persons who profit thereby, 
eighty bushels per acre having been produced.’ At what 
period it may have been first cultivated is not recorded. In 
the last quarter of the same century, the only other intro¬ 
duction of importance seems to have been the chiccory or 
succory from France, in 1788, by Arthur Young ; for though 
the further cultivation of the natural grasses was strenuously 
advocated by many able authors, as Curtis, Lord Karnes, 
Dr. Anderson, Martin, and Nodder, in their ‘ Flora Bustica,’ 
and Young, as well as by contributors to agricultural peri¬ 
odicals, yet comparatively little attention seems to have 
been bestowed on testing their actual merits by field culture. 
“ The hard fescue and smoothed-stalked meadow-grasses, 
if not cultivated before the end of the eighteenth century, 
appear at least to have had a little attention bestowed upon 
them very early in the present, although the exact period, 
or by whom, has not been ascertained. In 1807, Dr. 
Richardson, of Portrush, Ireland, created a considerable 
sensation among agriculturists, by the introduction of his 
famous florin grass, which was cultivated more than forty 
years before by Stillingfleet, who, in succeeding works 
of his, endeavoured to impress upon growers the advan¬ 
tage of cultivating it along with the ‘ float fescue, on moist 
meadow lands,’ seemingly, however, with very little effect; 
so that to Dr. Richardson belongs the merit of first ac¬ 
quiring for the florin a fair and general trial. About 
1820, an extensive set of experiments with grasses, in¬ 
cluding many exotic as well as native sorts not previously 
cultivated, was instituted at Woburn Abbey, under the 
direction of the late Duke of Bedford, the results of which 
are recorded by the late Mr. George Sinclair, then gardener 
to his Grace, in his invaluable ‘Hortus Gramineus Wobum- 
ensis,’ which work may justly be said to have first directed 
that general attention to the cultivation of useful grasses, 
so long and unaccountably withheld. 
“In 1821, the crimson clover was brought into notice by 
the late Sir John Sinclair, Bart., and grown in Berwick¬ 
shire that same year : three years afterwards it was intro¬ 
duced to England, on a much more extended scale, by Mr. 
John Ellman, jun., of Southover, near Leeds. Mr. Elies, of 
Longleat, in 1826, recommended, from experience, the cul¬ 
tivation of the day-lily, as a grateful and early spring food 
for milk cows. And in 1830, Mr. Grant, nurseryman at 
Lewisham, advertised the rough and prickly comfrey, which 
lie had discovered to be an agreeable, fast-growing, and 
nutritious food for both cattle and horses. In 1831, we 
first introduced the Italian rye-grass, from Hamburgh, and 
that same year Mr. Thomson, of Banchory, also brought 
home a few seeds of it from Munich. The late George 
Stephens, land drainer, Edinburgh, introduced the Alsike 
clover from Sweden in 1834; and in the same year the 
villous annual vetch was brought into notice, and recom¬ 
mended as a winter tare, by Mr. A. Gorrie, Annat, Perth- 
