28 DISQUISITIONS

any confiderable length(as is evidently the cafe with regard to common rye-

grafs*) would afford but poor returns if

cut green, although they may yield a very Meee) crop of hay if fuffered to attain

a proper degree of maturity. But how- ever great ae probability is that this may be he, cafe, ftill it is no more than a pro- bability. Nor can the farmer hope to arrive at certainty in this cafe, till he knows, by accurate experiment, not only the exact qualities of each of thefe plants when green or dry, but alfo the quantity of each that can be produced upon the fame foil. with equally fkilfal manage ment.

YY

V.

Some plants that may be equally nou- rifhing to“animals, and that equally re- quire to be confumed green, may never- thelefs differ in this refpe@, that one clafs

* Lolium Perenne. Properly, perennial darnel-grafs, improperly called rye-grafs; as there is another plant, Jecale villefum, properly called rye-grafs, that has no other Englifh name,

may

a