Practical observations on the British grasses, especially such as are best adapted to the laying down or improving of meadows and pastures: likewise, an enumeration of the British grasses / By William Curtis.

  • Curtis, William, 1746-1799.
Date:
1805
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on the British grasses, especially such as are best adapted to the laying down or improving of meadows and pastures: likewise, an enumeration of the British grasses / By William Curtis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Others have attempted to attra£l him by the ofFerj of method of proceeding, as one would think could not possl- “ bly prevail universally ; yet this is the case as to all grasses, except the Darnel-Grass, and what is known in some few “ counties by the name of the Suffolk-Grass (Poa annua); and this latter instance is owing, I believe, more to the soil “ than any care of the husbandman. Now, would the farmer “ be at the pains of separating once in his life, half a pint, or “ a pint, of the different kinds of grass seeds, and take care “ to sow them separately, in a very little time lie would have wherewithal to stock his farm properly, according to the “ nature of each soil, and might at the same time spread these ** seeds separately over the nation by supplying the seed-shops.. *♦ The number of grasses, fit for the farmer, is, I believe, “ small; perhaps half a do^en, or half a score, are all he need “ to cultivate ; and how small the trouble would be of such a task, and how great the benefit, must be obvious to every « one at first sight. Would not any one be looked on as wild, who should sow icheat, larky, oats, rye, peas, beans, vetches, “ buck-wheat, turnips, and weeds of all sorts together? Yet how is it much less absurd to do what is equivalent in rela- “ tion to grasses ?-^(Stillingfleet’s 3/fsc. Tracts, edit. 2, « p. 365.) “ Meadow and pasture land is oftener neglected than ploughed ground, notwithstanding it generally admits of a ‘‘ much greater proportion of improvement. The best grasses cannot be collected at too great an expence; for, I have seen a small spot of land, in the middle of a large piece, which was laid down twelve or fourteen years since, by Mr. Stillingfleet, upon the estate of Mr. Price, of Foxley, in Herefordshire, with some choice seeds, at the “ same time when the remainder of the field was laid down with comnion seeds; and this spot is considerably better thait