. Pastures and pasture plants ... Pastures; Forage plants. OUR PASTURE GRASSES 13 hard, and decreases in value. Good seed has about 95 percent, of purity and germination, some 41 lbs. being required per acre. Cultivated alone only for seed-production, Meadow fescue is a most valuable ingredient of mixtures for permanent pastures and alternate husbandry, though not adapted for " clover-grass," or very short leys. Stebler says that for irrigated lands and for meadows it can form 20 per cent., or even more, of the whole mixture; and for short leys, rarely more than 15 per cent. It benef
. Pastures and pasture plants ... Pastures; Forage plants. OUR PASTURE GRASSES 13 hard, and decreases in value. Good seed has about 95 percent, of purity and germination, some 41 lbs. being required per acre. Cultivated alone only for seed-production, Meadow fescue is a most valuable ingredient of mixtures for permanent pastures and alternate husbandry, though not adapted for " clover-grass," or very short leys. Stebler says that for irrigated lands and for meadows it can form 20 per cent., or even more, of the whole mixture; and for short leys, rarely more than 15 per cent. It benefits from applications of farm-yard manure. Sheep's Fescue-Grass {Fesiuca ovind).—Perennial, of compact and dense tufted growth; flowering early in June; and ripening seed about the middle of July. Though comparatively very small in size and yield. Sheep's fescue possesses the important and valuable qualification of thriving on poor sands and in dry, rocky pastures, where other fodder grasses do not grow, while its root-system is so ex- tensive as to materially improve the land. It flourishes on silicious and shallow soils, dying out in wet situations; resists extremes of drought and cold; yields hay of medium quality ; attains to its maximum in the second and third years, giving only an insignificant pro- duce the first, and commencing to deteriorate the third, season. Cattle do not care for its herb- age, which, if grazing be not commenced early, soon becomes so hard as to be disliked even by sheep, which otherwise eat it readily. During favourable seasons it continues to grow until the winter. At the time of flowering, Sinclair obtained 5,445 lbs. of green fodder, with an aftermath of 3,403 lbs., from an acre of light sandy loam ; while Burger secured 1,280 lbs. of hay per acre. The seed is easily harvested, and is consequently cheap, but it is sometimes adulterated with those of Wavy mountain hair-grass (Aira flexuosa) and Purple Melic-grass {Molinia cceruled). Good commer
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