cleaning it, as the chaff, &c. could only be separated by the hand, since it could neither be winnowed nor sifted, on account of the tendency it had to form masses, as lately alluded to.

The pot containing the coal-ashes evidently bore the best plants; so that it is probably a suitable manure. With respect to the difficulty of equally distributing the seed, might not a large, and well mixed, addition of mould, or of coal ashes, very much facilitate?

The quantity of land set was four poles, so that the produce of an acre would amount to 330lbs., provided it bore seed in proportion. The value of the seed we cannot speak to, as at present it has, in fact, no market price. Two agricultural societies in Germany applied to us, in conse quence, we believe, of information derived from you, for some seed. We sent 3lbs., for which we charged 8s. per pound; offering, at the same time, to supply them with a large quantity of roots. The seed was transmitted through the medium of a very respectable house in London.

The Society will probably agree with us, from the apparent coarseness of the straw, in thinking that our soil is too rich for the purpose of raising this grass for fine plat. The colour, also, appears very indifferent; however, neither the time of cutting the grass, nor the after-management, were by any means such as would have been dictated by an intention of forming plat; and we hope these considerations will be received as a sufficient apology for the circumstance.

With respect to the selection of soil, we will mention a circumstance which appears to us to merit some attention, as calculated to assist in the choice. In August, 1823, whilst the ground was very wet, a narrow-wheeled waggon,

loaded with upwards of three tons of green poppies, passed over the plot of grass, and it was singular that in the next spring, the grass in the tracks of the wheels, and in the footsteps of the horses, assumed a widely different appearance to the other parts, being of a much darker green colour, and of more advanced growth. In fact, it bore the same relation to the parts which had received no pressure, as those parts of a meadow which have been accidentally manured by the cattle, do to the rest. It was evident enough that the condensation of the soil alone occasioned this luxuriance of growth, but whether it did so merely by checking the growth of those perennial runners which are produced in great numbers under-ground, or in a more direct way, was not so apparent.

A very small quantity of seed was reserved from the autumn sowing, of 1822, and committed to the ground with the plants in February, 1823, in two drills, twelve inches asunder. We learned nothing from this experiment, excepting that the species of grass is strictly biennial, as in the two rows not a plant flowered. The distance apart of the drills appeared very suitable, for the ground became fully covered before the harvest in 1824.

From these experiments we deduce, that whether the seeds of this grass be committed to the earth in the autumn, or in the spring, no crop of straw, or of seed, can be expected until the second summer following; a circumstance of much inconvenience, inasmuch as a crop must be lost, and a risk incurred of rendering the land foul. Should not this view of the subject suggest a cultivation of the ticklemoth, similar to that pursued with clover, ray grass, &c., that is, by sowing it with culmiferous crops. It appears to us even better adapted to such a purpose, as,

from having a large system of perennial roots, it would be less likely to perish from being over-shadowed; for the same reason, it would also bear a ploughing every spring, in moist weather, without the least injury to the crop; but on the contrary, with the advantages of getting rid of the annuals, particularly of our annual indigenous grasses. In this manner we have treated peppermint and spearmint for several years with the best success; both with the plough and the breast plough, turning up the slices of the latter.

Another method of expediting the cultivation of this plant may be suggested; we allude to the planting of roots in the first instance, a practice well known in the garden, and calculated to facilitate the cultivation of the grass, by saving a year. We are, Sir,

A. Aikin, Esq.

&c. &c. &c.

JOHN COWLEY, Surgeon.

Secretary, &c. &c.

Wм. B. STAINES, Surgeon.

. SIR,

CERTIFICATES.

22, Bush-lane, City, 22d Jan. 1825. SOME time ago we took the liberty to apply to you respecting "the ticklemoth grass seed," when you were kind enough to refer us to Messrs. Cowley and Staines, of Winslow, Bucks; we now beg to say, that those gentlemen did send us, in September last, three pounds weight of the above seed, which we have sent to our friends on the continent.

We
e are, Sir,

A Aikin, Esq.

&c. &c. &c.

Secretary, &c. &c.

H. W. CAMPE & CO.

January 29th, 1825.

I HEREBY certify, that Messrs. Cowley and Staines grew, in the year 1824, eight pounds and three quarters of that species of poa, called ticklemoth, or New England grass-seed.

JAMES PREEDY,

Vicar of Winslow.

No. IV.

MATERIAL USED IN TUSCANY FOR PLAT.

The SILVER CERES MEDAL was this session presented to Mr. W. SALISBURY, Barossa-place, Brompton, for his information respecting the material employed in Tuscany for Fine Plat.

IT

It appears that specimens of the straw, with seeds of the plant, were, in 1819, brought to this country by Captain Roper, R.N., and were presented by him to H. R. H. the Duke of Sussex, President of the Society. Some of these seeds his Royal Highness gave to Mr. Salisbury, who sowed and obtained a crop from them in the following year. The plants being allowed to come to maturity, proved to be the triticum turgidum, a variety of bearded wheat, which seems to differ in no respect from the spring wheat grown in the vale of Evesham, and in other parts of England.

In the autumn of 1823, M. Fournier, of Geneva, a friend of Mr. Salisbury, being about to make a journey to Flo

rence, was requested to make enquiries for him respecting the culture and subsequent preparation of the bearded wheat, as far as regards its application to the purposes of platting.

M. Fournier states that the bearded wheat is cultivated largely in Tuscany, both for food as well as for platting; and that he saw the plant grown for its straw alone in various parts of the Val d'Arno, between Pisa and Florence. The seed is thickly sown on a poor stony soil, on the bank of the river when the crop is some inches high, it is mown, but not very close to the ground; this treatment subdues, more or less, the rankness of the plant, and the stems that shoot up are slenderer than before. If they are still too coarse, the crop is again mown, and so on to a third and even a fourth time, according to the vigour of the the plant. When the stems are sufficiently fine, they are allowed to grow; after the bloom is over, but while the grain is still very milky, the plants are pulled up and exposed to the sun on the sand of the river, care being taken to water them from time to time. When the straw is come to a proper colour, a very careful selection is made of it, according to its quality, and it is divided into several sorts, according to the size of the straw. The only part used is from the base of the ear a few inches down towards the first joint. The part between the first and third joints is reserved for common plat.

Specimens of the straw in its unprepared and prepared state, collected by M. Fournier, and given by him to Mr. Salisbury, were laid before the Committee.