roms At PY pats 8 ame Sayin tase bahay eeahon tne een tiers hits eenane ae cae ae i , ie } i 4 1. Spikelet, Magnified. 4 Q | 3. Germ. 9. iawn? FOWL MEADOW. See p. 44. PRACTICAL TREATISE ON GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS: COMPRISING THEIR NATURAL HISTORY, COMPARATIVE NUTRITIVE VALUE, METHODS OF CULTIVATING, CUTTING AND CURING, AND THE MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. BY CHARLES L. FLINT, A.M, SEORETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, MEMBER OF THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY, ETC. ETC. NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 321 BROADWAY. LONDON: N. TRUBNER & CO., 12 PATERNOSTER ROW. Pony. Le bet Clerk. Gv ce de BoF iy tl 20.405) Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, By Grorce P. Putnam & Co., In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court forthe Southern District of New York. dy transfer from Pat, @fflee Lib. April 1914 ea aan Wiu11aM Wuire, Printer, 4 Spring Lane, Boston. PREFACE. It has been my endeavor, in the following pages, to treat my subject in a plain, simple manner, so as to enable the farmer to distinguish between the different species of grass by means of the descriptions given, and to awaken an interest in the pursuit of the subject, treating cursorily of the natural history of the grasses, and indicating to the reader the vast field of study which lies open to him in this department. | The illustrations, which will be found to be very care- fully and accurately drawn, will tend to render the under- standing of the text more easy, and thus make interesting to all much that would be attractive only to the scientific student of botany if they were omitted. In looking at the subject in its economical aspect, I have tried to give all that is known to be of value, and have presented the conclusions of practical men in regard to points about which the opinions of individuals actively engaged in agriculture differ. It has been my object, in a word, to give the work an eminently practical character, and not to make it merely a collection of doubt- ful theories and vague generalities. It must be left to the reader to determine how far I have accomplished this purpose. lv PREFACE. The local names of many species of grass are so numerous that I can hardly hope to have given them all, in every case, though what are known to me I have given as synonyms. Should the work meet with such favor as to call*for another edition, I shall attempt to make it less imperfect in this respect. It may not be irrelevant to remark here that but little is known of the real economical value of some of the grasses which I have described, and it is by no means impossible that many of our wild grasses which we now look upon as almost worthless, may be found at some future time to possess valuable nutritive qualities, and thus be added to our list of grasses which may be profitably cultivated. It seems to’ be altogether unnecessary to multiply authorities, either here or in the body of the work, to prove the importance of the subject. Perhaps the most forcible expression of opinion on this point may be found in the French writer who asserts that the term grass is only another name for beef, mutton, bread. and clothing ; and in the Belgian proverb— No grass, no cattle; no cattle, no manure; no manure, no crops!” For myself I can only say that if my researches,—imperfect as they doubtless have been,—shall have the effect of creating a more general interest in the subject, and leading to more careful inquiry and more general and accurate investiga- tion, I shall be amply rewarded for any labor I may haye undergone in the preparation of these pages. Boston, Feb., 1857. GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. I propose to speak of the grasses, a family of plants the most extensive and the most beautiful, as well as the most important to mankind. It embraces nearly a sixth part of the whole vegetable kingdom; it clothes the globe with perpetual verdure, or adorns it at fixed seasons with a thick matted carpet of green, none the less beautiful for its simplicity, and it nour- ishes and sustains by far the greater part of the animals that serve us and minister to our wants. When we consider the character of our climate, and the “necessity of stall feeding during five or six months of the year, for which we are dependent mainly on the grasses, we shall see that in an economical point of view, this subject is one of the most important that can occupy the farmer’s attention. The annual value of the grass crop to the country, for pasturage and hay together, is not less than $300;000,000. I shall endeavor to give a brief account of the natural history or description of all the useful grasses found in our fields and pastures, partly because it is essential to a complete under- standing of the subject, and partly because there is at present no popular treatise on the subject within the easy reach of our farmers, and something of the kind is needed for reference ; but I shall confine myself mainly to a plain and practical treat- ment of the subject, making such suggestions as I think may be useful, on the cultivation, cutting and curing of the grasses - for hay, the comparative value of the different varieties, and the general management of grass lands. This subject, familiar to me from my earliest recollection, has occupied my attention almost exclusively, during the past ; : 2 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. year. Within this period I have been able to make an exten sive collection, embracing nearly all the varieties of our New England grasses, for preservation in the Agricultural Museum connected with my office. The grasses are variousiy divided, classified and arranged. They are sometimes designated as natural or artificial; the former comprising all the true grasses,—that is, plants with long, simple, narrow leaves, each leaf having many fine veins or lines running parallel with a central prominent vein or mid- rib, and a long sheath (Fig. 1.) divided to the base, which seems to clasp the stem, or through which the stem seems to pass, the stem being hollow, with very few exceptions, and closed at the nodes or joints; and the latter—the artificial— comprising those plants, mostly leguminous, which have been cultivated and used like the grasses, though they do not properly belong to that family, such as the clovers, sainfoin and medic. In common language the term is often used in a sense not strictly proper, being not unfrequently applied to any herbage which affords nourishment to herbaceous animals, including, of course, not only many leguminous plants like clovers, but some others which would more properly be called forage plants. But in botanical language, and speaking more precisely, the erasses, Graminee@, embrace most of the grains cultivated and used by man, as wheat, rye, Indian corn, barley and rice, all of which will be at once recognized as having leaves and stems very similar in shape and structure to most of the plants popu- larly called grasses. As the general appearance of plants is often greatly modified by climate, soil and modes of cultivation, it is important to fix upon certain characteristics which are permanent and unaltered by circumstances, by means of which the particular genus and species may be identified with ease and certainty. It is evident that these characteristics could not be simply in the leaves, or the stems, or the size of the plant, because there will be a great difference between plants growing in a poor, thin, sandy soil, and others of the same species on a deep, rich loam. Bota- nists have, therefore, been compelled to resort to other peculiari- ties to distinguish between different species; and the terms used NATURAL HISTORY. 3 ~ pagers Setkelers .. Lateral Branches Spitelet magnified Fig. 2. » “SS CS ee ee Bachis a & YAY & 4¢% central branch <=> oO uy is - y fy G 4 Jhner or ee or o may wor paler 4 iF agen pale H [ZB ey } Floret megnitied kig. 3. Janer or ----- \ \ apper glume ho Re \ \h ; | lower gluse | i * q i i — Cabje magnitied 7 a ‘Sheath of Leaf big. 4. ’ Filaments. T ween nnn nee Stigna ‘ ij ry x q an ess Style / A \ i | 4 bithersé I i enpoecwenecer Sgr ~-n === Ovarinne date Sth ak wilt Nectory or cale Tistil, magnified Fig. 5. Fig. 1. Annual Spear Grass. Hasal feccip \ s ‘4 rit} ; “a ee mei mt in By faserar ae - ae ip saben i poe Me inate. : 4 f anny t i) é iad) soa te NATURAL HISTORY. 5 to express these, like the terms used in other departments of natural history, are technical; and hence, in detailing the natural history of the grasses, the use of technical language to a greater or less extent, cannot be avoided. I shall endeavor, however, by the use of plates and synonyms to bring the de- scription of species within the easy comprehension of every one who will carefully examine the subject. The flowers of the grasses are arranged on the stem in spikes, as where they are set on a common stalk without small stalks or branches for each separate flower, as in Herds-grass, ( phleum pratense,) or in panicles, or. loose subdivided clusters, as in | orchard grass, (dactylis glomerata.) A panicle is said to be loose or spreading, as in redtop, (agrostis vulgaris,) when the small branches on which the flowers are set, are open, or ex- tended out freely in different directions; it is said to be dense, or crowded or compressed, when the branches are so short as to give it more or less of the spike form. The spikelets (Fig. 2) have a calyx, (Fig. 4) containing one, two or more florets, (Fig. 8.) This whole arrangement will be seen in Fig. 1, which represents a stalk of the common annual spear grass, (poa annua,) a plant familiar to every one as often troublesome in gravel walks and on hard, dry soils. Here the joint, the stem or culm, clasped by the sheath of the leaf, the leaf itself, the ligule and the spikelets, all distinctly appear, and the reader will do well to make himself familiar with the few technical terms used by a study of this figure, in con- nection with Fig. 2, where the spikelet is so magnified as to show the florets and the calyx very distinctly, all of which are generally very easily seen with the naked eye, and Fig. 3, showing a floret still more magnified, with its two palez, the outer palea being the longer and generally keeled,—that is, having one, three or more longitudinal ribs, often having on the back, base or sum- mit, an awn or beard of different lengths, as in the oat and brome grasses, the inner palea with two separate fringed ribs, each on a fold at the side. The calyx, bract or outer scale of the spikelet, is shown very much magnified in Fig. 4, composed of two glumes, the upper and lower, the upper glume being the larger. One or both of the glumes are sometimes wanting. In Fig. 5, is shown the pistil magnified, consisting of the nectary, composed of one or two fleshy scales, (in some plants 6 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. of this family both on one side, in some, entirely wanting,) and the germ, ovary, or seed bearing portion of the pistil. The stamens are also seen in the same figure, consisting each of a bag filled with a fine powder or pollen, supported upon a stalk or filament which is analagous to the stalk or stem of a leaf, ~ while the bag which holds the pollen, called the anther, corres- ponds to the blade or body of the leaf. These are essential parts of the flower. Ata particular stage of its growth, the anther, bursting, scatters its pollen, some of which, lighting upon the summit of the stigma, is said to fertilize it, when the new seed begins to enlarge, and a germ is formed capable of producing other plants.* This process is very apparent to the observation of the farmer in the case of Indian corn, on which the pollen is so abundant that it may be shaken off in clouds. It falls upon the stigmas or “ silks,’ one of which is attached to each embryo seed or germ; and without this particle of pol- len, the seed would not be capable of attaining maturity. The same is seen less palpably in the other grasses, as, for instance, in Herds-grass. The same arrangement occurs in this whole family of plants, though it is more evident in Indian corn, on account of its size, than in the smaller grasses. The anther, as will be seen, consists of two cells—very prominent and hanging, supported on the long, slender filaments, and forked or divided at the end. The two short and smooth styles rise from the summit of the ovary, and the stigmas are feathery or rough, ,sometimes branched or compound. Only one seed is contained in each ovary, and each seed is covered, when mature, with a thin husk or hull called the pericarp, which originally formed the germ or ovary ; and the ripe seed or fruit is only the ovary arrived at maturity. The substance or albumen of the seed of all the grasses is mealy or farinaceous, as wheat, for instance, or rye, or Indian corn, which are most used as seeds, on account of their size and productiveness. These are the prominent characteristics of this great and universally diffused order of plants, constituting, as it does, the chief support of animals as well as men. They belong, as has * The germ is the first part of the seed that is distinctly formed, and hence, if Indian corn is plucked while “in the milk,” or in a green state, fit for boiling, it will germinate the next year as well asif it were allowed to ripen. NATURAL HISTORY. T been seen, to other plants than those commonly called grasses, the order graminex, as I have already stated, embracing the grains, as wheat, barley, rye, and many others, while it does not include the clovers, which properly belong to the order of leguminous plants. These characteristics, or at least the most important of them, will be very easily kept in mind, as the long, narrow and lance shaped leaves, and the mealy nature of the seeds which makes nearly the whole family valuable and nutritious; but in study- ing the distinctive characteristics of the different species and varieties particularly valuable or interesting to an agriculturist as forage plants, it will be necessary to depend more upon the technical terms already referred to, though these will be avoided, or explained in the context as far as possible. It will have been observed that considerable importance is given to the flowers and seeds as distinguishing characters of the grasses. It will often be found difficult from the mere external appearance of a variety of grass to determine to what species, or even to what genus it belongs, so great is the resem- blance between the different species of this class of plants ; but with the aid of a small magnifying glass there will very seldom be much difficulty in determining the species, especially if the plant is taken while in blossom. Indeed, it will often be pos- sible to arrive at-a conclusion from an inspection of a few of the more evident characters. I shall limit myself mainly to a description of those species which it may be for the interest of the farmer to cultivate, or at least to encourage in his pastures, with such others as should be known to be avoided. In the arrangement of species I shall follow mainly the natu- ral order adopted by Professor Gray, to whom, as well as to many others, I am indebted for no small assistance, in studying the specific characteristics of many of the specimens collected and presented in the following pages. The reader will find that a frequent reference to figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 will greatly aid him in becoming familiar with the technical terms applied to the organs or parts of the flower which it is desirable to understand, and by means of which he will soon learn to distinguish the different species more readily. In giving the scientific names, the first word that occurs in 8 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. parenthesis is the name of the genus; the second, that of the species; as for instance, in Herds-grass, (phlewm pratense,) phleum is the generic name, pratense the specific. often contains many species. The grasses which are described more or less minutely in the following pages, are named in A genus TaBLEL. List of Grasses and Forage Plants. Common Name. Botanical Name. aoe g. hati a ; Place of growth. Rice Grass, Leersia oryzoides, . August, wild, Low wet places. White Grass, . Leersia Virginica, . August, gs Damp woods. Indian Rice, Zizania aquatica, August, ws Borders of streams. : Meadow Foxtail, Alopecurus pratensis, May, . - | cultiv’d, | Fields and pastures. Floating Foxtail, Alopecurus geniculatus, | July, Aug. wild, Wet meadows, ditches Slender Foxtail, Alopecurus agrestis, July, Be Fields and pastures. Wild Water Foxtail, . ' Alopecurus aristulatus, | June to Aug. | ‘ In wet meadows. Timothy, or Herds-grass, | Phleum pratense, June, July, . | cultiv’d, | Fields and pastures. Rush Grass, Vilfa aspera, . September, wild, Dry sandy soils. Late Drop-seed, Sporobolus serotinus, September, ob . Wet sands. Redtop, . Agrostis vulgaris, . July, cultiy’d, | Fields and pastures. English Bent, Agrostis alba, July, sr Fields and pastures. Fiorin, Agrostis stolonifera, July, us Moist meadows. Brown Bent, . Agrostis canina, June, July, .| - - | Fields and pastures. Tickle Grass, . Agrostis scabra, June, July, . | wild, Old fields. Southern Bent, Agrostis dispar, July, cultiv’d, | Fields, pastures. Annual Beard Grass, Polypogon monspeliensis| June, July, . | wild, Near the coast. Wood-reed Grass, Cinna arundinacea, July, August, | ‘ Shady Bat op Nimble Will, . Muhlenbergia diffusa, August, Sept.| ‘* Dry hills, woods. Mexican Muhlenbergia, . | Muhlenbergia Mexicana, | August, re Low grounds. Sylvan Muhlenbergia, Muhlenbergia sylvatica, | August, Sept.| ‘ Rocky woods. Awnless Mublenbergia, . | Muhlenbergia sobolifera, | August, Sept | ‘‘ Open rocky woods. Willdenow’s Muhlenber- Ai Mis F : . |Muhlenbergia Willdenovii] August, Sept. | ‘‘ Open rocky woods, Awned Brachyelytrum, . | Brachyelytrum aristatum| June, be Rocky woods. Blue Joint Grass, Calamagrostis Canadensis} July, ne Wet grounds. Glaucous Small Reed, Calamagrostis coarctata, | August, s Wet grounds. Beach Grass, Sea Reed, . | Ammophila arundinacea,} August, aay Drifting sands. Upright Sea Lyme Grass, | Elymus arenarius, . . | July, cultiv’d, | Drifting sands. Mountain Rice, Oryzopsis melanocarpa, | August, wild, Rocky woods. ~ "= ~e NATURAL HISTORY. TABLE I.— Continued. ee Common Name. Botanical Name. Beers g. beat Place of growth. Feather Grass, Stipa ayenacea, July, wild, Dry sandy woods. Poverty Grass, Aristida dichotoma, September, oe er foe pine Fresh Water Cord Grass, | Spartina cynosuroides, . | August, Ful Wea Banks of streams. Salt Reed Grass, Spartina polystachya, Auguet, - Brackish marshes. Rush Salt Grass, Spartina juncea, August, as Salt marches, beaches Salt Marsh Grass, . Spartina stricta, August, ee Sea coast! Sand Grass, Tricuspis purpurea, August, Sept.| ‘* SS ae on the Orchard Grass, Dactylis glomerata, June, cultiv’d, | Fields and pastures. Pennsylvanian Eatonia, . | Eatonia Pennsylvyanica, | June, wild, Moist woods. Rattlesnake Grass, . Glyceria Canadensis, July, ss Wet bogs. Obtuse Spear Grass, Glyceria obtusa, August, a Borders of ponds. Long Panicled Manna Grass, . - «| Glyceria elongata, . June, July, .| “¢ Woods and swamps. Meadow Spear Grass, Glyceria nervata, . June, July, . | wildand| Moist and wet mea- ' cultiy’d, dows. Pale Manna Grass, ., Glyceria pallida, July, wild, Shallow water. . Spike Grass, Brizopyrum spicatum, . August, eee Salt marshes. June Grass, Poa pratensis, June, July, . | cultiv’d, | Fields ana pastures. Blue Grass, Poa compressa, - July, August, ee Dry road sides and pastures. Annual Spear Grass, Poa annua, April to Oct. | wild, Fields and pastures. Rough Stalked Meadow, | Poa trivialis, . July, cultiv’d, | Fields and pastures. Wood Meadow Grass, Poa nemoralis, June, wild, Fields and pastures. Sea Spear Grass, Poa maritima, July, a. By the sea side. Common Manna Grass, . | Poa fluitans, . June, Be Moist and muddy Wavy Meadow Grass, Poa laxa, : : - | July, vg sligt’eonky hills. Water Spear Grass, Poa aquatica, August, st In wet soils. Fowl Meadow, Poa serotina . July & Aug. | cultiy’d, | In wet soils, Creeping Meadow, . Eragrostis reptans, July & Aug. wild, Sandy river banks. Strong-scented Meadow, | Eragrostis pozeoides, Aug. & Sept. | ‘ Sandy fields, road Slender Meadow, Eragrostis pilosa, . August, ae Sands ge gravelly Quaking Grass, Briza media, . June, *s patna: Small Fescue Grass, Festuca tenella, July, Ce Dry sterile soils. Sheep’s Fescue, Festuca ovina, June, cultiv’d, High pastures and Meadow Fescue, Festuca pratensis, . June, a Fiells and pastures, Tall Fescue Grass, . Festuca elatior, June, July, . " Fields and pastures. Hard Fescue Grass, Festuca duriuscula, June, Fields and pastures. Red Fescue Grass, . Festuca rubra, - - wild, Sandy places by the Slender Fescue, . Festuca loliacea, - - cultiy’d, Meitt melanin pas- ‘ q ; tures. 2 10 TABLE I.— Continued. GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. Common Name. Nodding Fescue, Crested Dog’s Tail, . Willard’s Bromus, - Smooth Brome Grass, Soft Chess, Wild Chess, Fringed Brome Grass, Meadow Brome, Common Reed Grass, Perennial Rye Grass, Italian Rye Grass, . Bearded Darnel, Many-fiowered Darnel, Couch, or Twitch Grass, . Squirrel-tail Grass, Lyme Grass, Canadian Lyme Grass, Slender Hairy Lyme, Bottle-brush Grass, Wood Hair Grass, . Hassock Grass, Wild Oat Grass, Downy Persoon, . 5 Downy Oat Grass, . Meadow, Oat Grass, Yellow Oat Grass, . Tall Meadow Oat Grass, . Meadow Soft Grass, Creeping Soft Grass, Seneca Grass, . . Sweet-scented Vernal, Reed Canary Grass, Common Canary Grass, . Millet Grass, . Hairy Slender Paspalum, Slender Crab Grass, Aira flexuosa, ceum, Holeus mollis, Botanical Name. tine a +. Festuca nutans, July, wild, ° Cynosurus cristatus, July, cultiv’d, Bromus secalinus, June, July, . A Bromus racemosus, June, wild, Bromus mollis, June, a Bromus Kalmii, June, July, .| ‘ Bromus ciliatus, July, Aug. of Bromus pratensis, . July, is Phragmites communis, . | September, ue Lolium perenne, June, cultiv’d, Lolium Italicum, ~ June, *. i Lolium temulentum, July, - - Lolium multiflorum, June, July, . | cultiv’d, Triticum repens, June, July, . | wild, Hordeum jubatum, June, ss Elymus Virginicus, July & Aug. | “ Elymus Canadensis, August, aff Elymus striatus, July, Ss Gymnostichum Hystrix, | July, Ws June, se Aira ceespitosa, June, July, .| ‘ Danthonia spicata. June, Ms Trisetum mollis, July, = Trisetum pubescens, July, of Avena pratensis, July, Ji Avena flavescens, . July, cultiv’d, Arrhenatherum avena- : . . | May, June, . ee Holcus lanatus, June, : ne July, Aug. wild, Hierochloa borealis, May, “ . | Anthoxanthumodoratum! May, June, .| “ Phalaris arundinacea, July, a Phalaris Canariensis, Ai July, August,| cultiy’d, Millium effusum, . June, wild, Paspalum setaceum, August, aE Panicum filiforme, . | August, ep Place of growth, Rocky woods. Fields and pastures. Fields, and in grain crops. Grain fields. Fields and pastures. Dry open woods. Rocky hills, woods. Dry arid pastures. Swamps'and edges of ponds. | Fields and pastures. Fields and pastures. Grain fields. Fields and pastures. Fields and pastures. Salt marshes. Banks of rivers. River banks. River banks. Moist rocky woods. Dry rocky hills. Marshy wet bottoms. Dry pastures. Rocky river banks. Poor dry pastures. Pastures. Fields and pastures. Fields and pastures. Fields and pastures. Fields and pastures. Wet meadows. — Fields and pastures. By running streams. Gardens. Damp cold woods. Sandy fields by the sea. Dry sands on the coast. NATURAL HISTORY. TABLE I.— Continued. 11 Common Name. Botanical Name. ae g. ae Place of growth. Smooth Crab Grass, Panicum eiabrait, August, Sept. | wild, peg NS waste _. Finger Grass, . Panicum sanguinale, Aug. to Oct. ne aed: ye and Agrostis-like Panic, Panicum agrostoides, July, August,| ‘ Wet meadows and : river banks. Prolific Panic Grass, Panicum proliferum, July, August,| ‘ Brackish marshes. Hair Stalked Panic, Panicum capillare, August, Sept.} ‘ Dry sandy fields. Tall Smooth Panic, Panicum virgatum, August, ue Moist sandy soils. Broad-leayed Panic, Panicum latifolium, June, July, .| ‘ Damp thickets. Barn Grass, Panicum crus-galli, August, Sept.| ‘“* | Rich cultivated grounds. Bristly Foxtail, Setaria verticillata, July, Aug. a About farm-houses. Bottle Grass, . ; Setaria glauca, July,. Ly Fields & barn-yards, Green Foxtail, Setaria viridis, .| July, Aug. oe Cultivated fields. Bengal Grass, . Setaria Italica, July, Aug. cultiv’d, | Fields and ditches. Bur Grass, Cenchrus tribuloides, August, wild, Sands near the coast. Gama Grass, . Tripsacum dactyloides, | August, ee Moist places on the Finger-spiked Wood, Andropogon furcatus, . | September, a esclis, pens hills. Purple-wood Grass, . | Andropogon scoparius, . | July to Sept. | ‘ Sterile, sandy plains. Indian Grass, . Sorghum nutans, . August, us Dry soils. Indian Millet, Sorghum vulgare, : July, cultiy’d, | Cultivated fields. Hungarian Millet, . Panicum germanicum, . - - ae Cultivated grounds. Chinese Sugar Cane, Sorghum saccharatum, . J uly, the frosts of winter better, perhaps, than most other grasses ; and in Kentucky, where it attains the highest perfection asa pas- ture grass, it sometimes continues luxuriant through their mild winters. It requires at least two or three years to become well set, and it does not arrive at its perfection as a pasture grass till the sward is older than that, and hence it is not suited to alternate husbandry, or where the land is to remain in grass only two or three years and then be ploughed up. In Kentucky, the best blue grass is found in partially shaded pastures. A well known farmer of that State, in a communication to the Ohio Farmer, says: “In our climate, and soil, it is not only the most beautiful of grasses, but the most valuable of crops. It is the first deciduous plant which puts forth its leaves here ; ripens its seed about the tenth of June, and then remains green, if the summer is favorable in moisture, during the sum- mer months, growing slowly till about the last of August, when it takes a second vigorous growth until the ground is frozen by winter’s cold. If the summer is dry, it dries up utterly, and will burn if set on fire ; but even then, if the spring growth has been left upon the ground, is very nutritious to all grazing stock, and especially to sheep and cattle, and all ruminating animals. When left to have all its fall growth, it makes fine winter pas- ture for all kinds of grazing animals. Cattle will not seek it through the snow, but sheep, mules and horses will paw off the snow and get plenty without any other food. When covered with snow, cattle require some other feeding ; otherwise they do well all winter upon it. ** Jt makes also the best of hay. I have used it for that for twenty years. It should be cut just as the seeds begin to ripen, well spread, and protected from the dew at night by windrowing or cocking ; the second evening stacked, with salt, or sheltered, with salt also. When properly cured, stock seem greatly to prefer it to all other hay. I would-not recommend it for meadow, espécially, however, because the yield is hardly equal 38 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. to Timothy and clover, and because it is more difficult to cut and cure.” | The same writer says: “‘ Any time in the winter, when the snow is on the ground, sow broadcast’ from three to four quarts of clean seed to the acre. With the spring the seeds germinate and are very fine’ in the sprouts, and delicate. No stock should be allowed for the first year, nor until the grass seeds in June, for the first time in the second year. The best plan is to turn on your stock when the seed ripens in June. Graze off the grass, then allow the fall growth and graze all winter, taking care never to feed the grass closely at any time.” ‘Another eminent cattle breeder speaking of this grass, says: ‘Perennial grasses are the true basis of agriculture, in the highest condition of that best employment for man. Grasses which are not perennial, are of immense value, especially as one of the shifts in the ordinary rotation of. crops, suited to the agriculture of the great upper, or northerly portion of our con- tinent, all of it above the cotton line. But it is the grasses which are perpetual, that I chiefly allude to, and among these, emphatically the blue grass, as it is called in the regions where it flourishes most. Whoever has limestone land, has blue grass; whoever has blue grass, has the basis of all agricultural pros- perity ; and that man, if he have not the finest horses, cattle and sheep, has no one to blame but himself. Others, in other circumstances, may do well; he can hardly avoid doing well, if he will try.”’ By reference to a table on a subsequent page, containing the results of the recent investigations of Prof. Way, the distin- guished chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, it will be seen how inferior this grass is when green, to Timothy, for instance, in all the nutritive, flesh-forming, and especially in the fat-forming principles which contribute so largely to the development and support of the whole animal system. The reader is referred to that table, and to another following it, con- taining analyses of these plants when dried and freed from water, and to the explanatory remarks on the nutritive princi- ples of plants, which precede those tables. Biure Grass, or WIRE Grass, (poa compressa.) Stems ascending, flattened, the uppermost joint near the middle, leaves short, bluish green, panicle dense and contracted, ex- NATURAL HISTORY. — _ 39 panding more at flowering; short branches often in pairs, covered with four to nine flowered, flat spikelets; flowers rather obtuse, linear, hairy below on the keel ; ligule short and blunt ; height about a foot. It is very common on dry, sandy, thin soils and banks, so hardy as to grow on the thin, hard soils covering the surface of rocks, along trodden walks, or gravelly knolls. It shoots its leaves early, but the amount of its foliage is not large, otherwise it would be one of our most valuable grasses, since it possesses a large per cent. of nutritive matter. Flowers in July. Most grazing animals eat it greedily, and it is especially relished by sheep. Its bluish green stems retain their color after the seed is ripe. It shrinks less in drying than most other grasses, and consequently makes a hay very heavy in proportion to its bulk. It is an exceedingly valuable pasture grass on dry, rocky knolls and should form a portion of a mix- ture for such soils. This should not be confounded with Ken- tucky blue grass alluded to above. ANNUAL SPEAR GRASS, (poa anuua, see Fig. 1,) is, perhaps, the most common of all our grasses. Its stems are spreading, flattened, panicle often one sided, spikelets crowded, three to seven flowered, lower palea more or less hairy on the nerves below ; leaves of a light green, sword-shaped, flat, often crump- led at the margins, as appears in Fig. 1,smooth on both surfaces, rough at the edges. Florets not webbed, and this distinguishes it from the June grass, (poa pratensis,) and its varieties. The outer or lower palea of this grass has no hairs on the lateral ribs as the poa pratensis has. This modest and beautiful grass flowers throughout the whole summer and forms a very large part of the sward of New England pastures, producing an early and sweet feed, exceedingly relished by cattle. It does not resist the drought very well, but becomes parched up in our pastures. , THe Rove Statkep Meapow Grass, (poa trivialis,) though not so common as the June grass, (poa pratensis,) is still often met with, and is found to have webbed florets; outer palea five ribbed, marginal ribs not hairy, higule long and pointed, stems two to three feet high. Distinguished from June grass by hav- ing rough sheaths, while in the latter the sheaths are smooth, the ligule obtuse and the marginal ribs of outer palea furnished with hairs. The rough stalked meadow grass has a fibrous 40 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. root, that of the June grass is creeping. It flourishes in moist meadows where it flowers in J uly. Introduced. This grass is seen in Fig. 26, while Fig. 27 represents a flower somewhat magnified. This is a valuable grass, to cultivate in moist, sheltered soils, possess- ing very considerable nu- tritive qualities, coming to perfection at a desirable time, and being exceed- ingly relished by cattle, horses and sheep. For such soils it should form a portion of a mixture of seeds, producing, in mix- ture with other grasses which serve to shelter it, a large yield of hay, far above the average of grass usually grown on a similar soil. It should be cut when in seed and not in the flower. Seven pounds of seed to the acre will produce a good sward. The grass loses about seventy per cent. of its weight in drying. Its hay contains about one and sixty hundredths per cent. of azote, and the nu- tritive qualities of the lat- termath exceed very con- siderably those of the crop cut in the flower or in'the seed. Woop Mrapow Grass, (poa nemoralis,) is met with in Hamp- shire and Berkshire counties. It grows from eighteen inches to two feet high, has a perennial, creeping root, an erect stem, Fig. 26. Rough Stalk Meadow Grass. NATURAL HISTORY. 41 slender, smooth, the upper sheath no longer than its leaf, with a very short ligule, the base of the floret having a silky web suspend- ing the calyx, leaves, light green. It is common in moist, shady places, and appears as a tall, rank grass, with a long, finely arched panicle. It flowers in June and ripens its seed in July. Though it has never to my knowledge been cultivated in this country, it appears to me worthy of attention for moist soils. It is certainly to be classed among the best of shaded pasture grasses, furnishing a fine, succulent and very nutritive herbage, which stock of all kinds are very fond of. Hay contains one and sixty- four one-hundredths per cent. of azote. The grass loses about fifty- five per cent. of its weight in drying. Fig. 28 represents this grass in blossom; Fig. 29 a mag- nified flower. The Creeping Sea Mrapow Grass, or SEA Spear Grass, (poa maritima,) referred by Gray to glyceria, is a beautiful grass which appears in and around salt marshes, growing from six to twelve inches high, 7 and having a_ perennial, creeping root. Stem erect, round, smooth, leaves most- 4 ly folded and compressed, / | roughish on the inner sur- jj face, spikelets linear, with from six to ten florets not webbed, the outer palea of lower floret terminating in an acute point. Flowersin July. Grows naturally near the sea. It is seen in Fig. 50, and its flower magnified, in Fig 31. 6 Fig. 28. Wood Meadow Grass. Fig, 29, 42 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. Fig. 33. ror = VA if PAS) pl Late! Fig. 30. Sea Spear Grass. Fig. 82. Common Manna Grass. The Fuoatinc Mreapow Grass, or Common Manna Grass, (poa fluitans,) referred by Gray to glyceria, differs from the other species of the poa genus in the general appearance of its slender panicle and long, linear spikelets. It grows from fifteen inches to two feet high, with a perennial, creeping root, erect, round, smooth stem, leaves large, rather long, roughish on both sides, lower ones flat, upper ones generally folded; spikelets few, long and linear, as shown in Fig. 82, which represents the NATURAL HISTORY. 48 plant near the time of flowering. Fig. 83 shows a magnified spikelet of this grass, florets not webbed. Flowers late in June. This grass grows naturally in very moist and muddy places, in ditches, on the margins of ponds and streams, and is very common. It is capable of cultivation as a permanent pasture grass, and its yield compares Well with many of the other grasses. Its seeds are greedily sought by birds, and in some parts of Germany are said to be used as a delicacy in soups and gruels. The Wavy Merapow Grass, (poa laxa,) oc- curs rarely on high and A py \} i, V4, f His " Wy AY 1 FS rocky hills, but is not’ suf- Ye ficiently common or val- } hy , Y uable to need description. If We The Water Sprar a be Grass, or Reep Mrapow GRASS, (poa aquatica,) grows in wet soils, in Hampshire County ; is a tall, reedy. grass, four or five feet high with a pan- icle nearly a foot long, dif- fuse, with smooth, flexu- ous branches. From its large size and _ broad leaves it can hardly be mistaken for any of the other species of poa. Its root is perennial, creeping, stem erect, stout, smooth, joints seven, smooth, spike- lets numerous, florets not webbed. Flow- ersin August. Seen in Fig. 34, and its spikelet in Fig. 35. Fig. 84. Water Spear Grass. This grass is referred 44 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. by Gray and others, to glyceria. It is very common in wet meadows and will be easily recognized. More nutritive when in flower than when the seed is ripe. It contains a compara- tively large per cent. of sugar. Makes a valuable fodder and cattle are very fond of it. Several other species belonging to this genus, are frequently met with, as the BrancHInc SPrar Grass, on dry sandy soils, a very elegant species, with a large panicle of sea-green spikelets ; the Harr Spear Grass, also an elegant grass growing on similar soils, with a hairy branching panicle over a foot long, leaves linear, nerved. But perhaps the most important of all is the Fowt Mnanvow, or Fatse Reprop, (poa serotina.) [See Frontis- piece. | The specific characteristics of this species are two to four, ‘sometimes five, flowered spikelets, oval, spear shaped, ligules elongated, flowers acutish, green, often tinged with purple, roots slightly creeping ; wet meadows and banks of streams, very com- mon. Flowers in July and August. In long continued moist weather the lower joints send up flowering stems. The panicle is erect and spreading when in flower, but more contracted and drooping when ripe. It is perennial. Native of Germany. , It early commended itself to the attention of farmers, for Jared Kliot, writing in 1749, says of it: “‘ There are two sorts of grass which are natives of the country, which I would recom- mend,—these are Herds-grass, (known in Pennsylvania by the name of Timothy-grass,) the other is Fowl] Meadow, sometimes called Duck-grass, and sometimes Swamp-wire Grass. It is said that Herds-grass was first found in a swamp in Piscataqua, by one Herd, who propagated the same; that Fowl Meadow- grass was brought into a poor piece of meadow in Dedham, by ducks and other wild water-fowl, and therefore called by such an odd name. It is supposed to be brought into the meadows at Hartford by the annual floods, and called there Swamp-wire grass. Of these two sorts of natural grass, the fowl-grass is much the best; it grows tall and thick, makes a more soft and pliable hay than Herds-grass, and consequently will be more fit for pressing, in order to ship off with our horses; besides it isa good grass, not in abundance inferior to English grass. It yields a good burden, three loads to the acre. It must be sowed in low, moist land. This grass has another good quality, which NATURAL HISTORY. 45 renders it very valuable in a country where help is so much wanting ; it will not spoil or suffer, although it stand beyond the common times for mowing. Clover will be lost, in a great measure, if it be not cut in the proper season. Spear-grass, commonly called English grass, if it stands too long, will be little better than rye straw; if this outstand the time, it is best to let it stand till there comes up a second growth, and then it will do tolerably well; but this fowl-grass may be mowed any time from July to October. * * * This I wondered at, but viewing some of it attentively, I think I have found the reason of it. When it is grown about three foot high it then falls down, but doth not rot like other grass when lodged ; in a little time after it is thus fallen down, at every joint it puts forth a new branch ; now to maintain this young brood of suckers there must be a plentiful course of sap conveyed up through the main stem or straw; by this means the grass is kept green and fit for mowing all this long period.” This grass grows abundantly in almost every part of New England, especially where it has been introduced and cultivated in suitable ground, such as the borders of rivers and intervals occasionally overflowed. It will not endure to be long covered with water, especially in warm weather. It is well to let a piece go to seed, save the seed and scatter it over low lands. It makes an excellent grass for oxen, cows and sheep, but is thought to be rather fine for horses. It never grows so coarse or hard but that the stalk is sweet and tender and eaten without ‘waste. It is very easily made into hay, and is more nutritive, according to Sinclair, than either foxtail, orchard grass, or tall meadow oat grass. Owing to its constantly sending forth flowering stems, the grass of the lattermath contains more nutritive matter than the first crop at the time of flowering, hence the names /fertilis and serotina, fertile and late flowering meadow grass. It thrives best when mixed with other grasses, and deserves a place in all mixtures for rich moist pastures. The CrrspiIng Mrapow Grass, (eragrostis reptans,) is fre- quently found on the sandy banks of rivers, and is a beautiful and delicate grass. Flowering in July and August. Its leaves are short, nearly awl-shaped, spikelets smooth, long and lance shaped, flowers acute, sheaths loose, striate and a little hairy on 46 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. the margin, panicles from one to two inches long. Not a culti- vated grass. The Srronc-ScENTED Mrapow Grass, (eragrostis poeoides,) -is sometimes found in sandy fields, roadsides, cultivated grounds and waste places. Its leaves are flat and smooth, lower sheaths hairy, spikelets containing from ten to twenty florets of a lead color. It flowers in August and September. Of no ingportance in agriculture. A variety of this grass (the megastachya) is found more fre- quently on similar situations; flowering about the same time ; emitting, when fresh, a sharp and disagreeable odor, by which it may be known. The SLENDER MEADOW Grass, (eragrostis pilosa,) the Hatr- PANICLED Mrapow Grass, (eragrostis capillaris,) the Hairy MEApow Grass, (eragrostis pectinacea,) are found in this State; but they are of no special importance for cultivation. They all occur on sandy, dry, waste places, the last only near the coast, and all flower in August and September. Quakine Grass, (briza media,) is sometimes met with in the eastern part of the State, as in the pastures of Dorchester. Pan- icle erect, with very slender spreading branches, and large, pur plish, tremulous spikelets from five to nine flowered, inner glume finely fringed, entire at the end. (Fig. 86.) In Fig. 87 is shown a magnified spikelet. It is avery beautiful, light, slender grass, about a foot high, perennial. Flowering in June and July. There is an annual, the Larce Quaxine Grass, (briza maxima, ) with large many-flowered spikes, cultivated in gardens — for ornament. Smatu Fescur Grass, (festuca tenella.) The generic char- acters of this genus are oblong spikelets, somewhat compressed, from three to many flowered, two very unequal glumes, pointed, pales roundish on the back, from three to five nerved, awn pointed or bristle shaped, stamens three, flowers harsh, often purplish, panicle nearly erect, leaves narrow, rigid, of a grayish green. The small fescue has a spike-like panicle, somewhat one-sided, from seven to nine flowered, awn of the awl-shaped palea, slen- der, leaves bristle-formed, stem slender, six to twelve inches high. It flourishes on dry and sterile soils, and is common. Flowers in July. NATURAL HISTORY. 47 Fig. 36. Quaking Grass. SHEEP’S Fescur, (festuca ovina,) is known by its nar- row panicle, short, tufted, bris- tle-shaped leaves, of a grayish color, somewhat tinged with red, its two to six flowered spikelets, awn, often nearly wanting. “It grows from six to ten inches high in dense perennial rooted tufts. It forms an excellent pasturage forsheep. It flowersin June jand July, in dry pastures. * In Fig. 38 is seen the form of this grass, and in Fig. 39 is Shown a magnified spikelet of it. Fig. 37 Meapow Fescur, (festuca pratensis,) is one of the most common of the fescue grasses. It is said to be the Randall grass of Virginia. Its pani- cle is nearly erect, branched, close, somewhat inclined to one side; spikelets linear, with from five to ten cylindrical flowers; leaves linear, of a glossy green, pointed, striated, rough on the edges ; stems round, smooth, from two to three feet high, roots, creeping, perennial. Its radical or root leaves are broader than those of the stem, while in most other species of fescue the radical leaf is generally narrower than those of the stem. Flowers in June and July, in moist pastures and near farm houses. 48 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. Fig. 38. Sheep’s Fescue. Fig. 40. Meadow Fescue. This is an excellent pasture grass, forming a very consider- able portion of the turf of old pastures and fields, and is more extensively propagated and diffused by the fact that it ripens its seed before most other grasses are cut, and sheds them to spring up and cover the ground. Its long and tender leaves are much relished by cattle. It is never or rarely sown in this country, notwithstanding its great and acknowledged value as a NATURAL HISTORY. 49 pasture grass. If sown at all, itshould be in mixture with other grasses, as orchard grass, rye grass, or common spear grass. It is of much greater value at the time of flowering than when Fig. 42. Tall Fescue Grass. Fig. 44. Red Fescue. the seed is ripe. It is said to lose a little over fifty per cent. of its weight in drying for hay. It is shown in Fig.. 40, and its magnified spikelet in Fig. 41. — The Tauu Fescur Grass, (festuca elatior,) is also found pretty 50 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. commonly in moist meadows and around farm houses. Its panicle is contracted, erect, or somewhat drooping, with short branches, spreading in all directions; spikelets crowded, with five to ten flowers, rather remote, oblong, lanceolate; leaves flatish, linear, acute ; stems two to four feet high, root perennial, fibrous, somewhat creeping and forming large tufts. Vig. 42 shows this plant at the time of flowering, and Fig. 43 a magni- fied spikelet of the same. Flowers in June and July. ‘Itis a nutritive and productive grass, growing naturally in shady woods and moist, stiff soils. Cattle are very fond of it. Said by some to be identical with the meadow fescue. The Harp Frscur Grass, (festuca duriuscula,) is also found to some extent, though not so commonly as the meadow fescue. It is by some regarded as a variety of the sheep’s fescue, taller and with a panicle more open, leaves flat, and spikelets four to eight flowered. It grows from one to two feet high. Flow- ers in June, in pastures and waste grounds. The Rep Fuscur, (festuca rubra,) by some regarded as only a variety of the preceding, is one of the largest of the varieties of fescue. Its leaves are broadish, flat, root extensively creep- ing, and throwing out lateral shoots. Found in dry pastures near the sea shore, in sandy soils. It is a grass of better quality than some of the other varieties, but never cultivated here as an agricultural product. The color of its leaves is some- what more grayish than the preceding and often tinged with red. It is shown in Fig. 44, while its spikelet is seen magnified in Fig. 45. The Stenprr Sprxep Fescun, (festuca loliacea,) is a species r,early allied to the tall fescue and possesses much the same qualities. It grows naturally in moist, rich meadows, forming a good permanent pasture grass, but as it is met with only very rarely, if ever, among American grasses, and is of no value for cultivation, it scarcely deserves a more extended notice. Fig. 46, a specimen of this plant in blossom. Fig. 47, a magnified flower of it. The Noppinc Fuscur, (festuca nutans,) is also rarely met with in rocky woods, and needs only to be mentioned. Crestep Doa’s Tart, (cynosurus cristatus.) (Fig. 48.) This grass is rarely found here, and scarcely needs description. Its spikes are simple, linear, spikelets awnless, stems one foot NATURAL HISTORY. 51 Fig. 46. Slender Fescue. Fig. 48. Crested Dog’s Tail. high, stiff, smooth, root perennial, fibrous and tufted. Flowers in July. It is said by some to be a valuable agricultural grass, but cattle seldom eat it, on account of its wiry stems; but on dry, hard soils and hills pastured with sheep, it is of value as a hardy, permanent grass. It is used in the manufacture of straw plait. Fig. 49 represents a magnified spikelet of the ‘erested dog’s tail. WIiLLArp’s Bromus, Cuuss, Cunat, (bromus secalinus.) The 52 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. characteristics of this genus (bromus) are, spikelets from five to many flowered, panicled, glumes not quite equal, shorter than the flowers, mostly keeled,—the lower, one to five, the upper, three to nine nerved,—palexw herbaceous, lower one convex on the back, or compressed, keeled, five to nine nerved, awned or bristle pointed from below the tip, upper palea at length adhering to the groove of the oblong grain, fringed on’ the keel, stamens three, styles attached below the apex of the ovary. The grasses of this genus are coarse, with large spike- lets, somewhat drooping generally when ripe. The specific characteristics are, a spreading panicle slightly drooping, spikelets ovate, smooth, of a yellowish green tinge, showing the rachis when in seed, and holding from six to ten rather distinct flowers. In the spikelet exhibited in the cut, (Fig. 50,) seven can be distinctly counted, the eighth or ninth imper- fectly developed can often be found; stems erect, smooth, round, from two to three feet high, bearing four or five leaves with striated sheaths ; the upper sheath crowned with an obtuse, ragged ligule, the lower sheaths soft and hairy, the hairs point- ing downwards’; joints five, slightly hairy, leaves flat, soft, linear, more downy on the upper than on the under side, points and margin rough to. the touch. Summit of the large glume mid- way between its base and the summit of the second floret, a constant mark of distinction from bromus racemosus and bromus mollis. (Fig. 50,) (b.) Fig. 51 shows the form of the spike- let a few days before coming to maturity. Flowers in June and July. It has no relation to Italian rye grass. Fig. 49. ' Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Distinguished from bromus arvensis in the spikelets having fewer florets, and the outer palea being rounded at the summit. Nothing more clearly illustrates the want of accurate knowl- edge of subjects intimately connected with agriculture, and immediately affecting the farmers’ interests, than the history of NATURAL HISTORY. | o3 the introduction and propagation of this worthless pest to our grain fields. It has been heralded in the papers, in connection with the names of distinguished friends of agriculture, with the earnest hope that it might receive extended trials.’ Monstrous prices have been charged and paid by the unsuspecting farmer for its seed, in many cases four and five dollars a bushel, a pledge being exacted that it should not be allowed to go to seed, for a reason, probably, which will shortly appear. Committees of agricultural societies haye been invited to examine and report upon it; and in a letter now lying before me, the disinterested propagator very kindly offers to put up ten barrels of bromus seed for $100, saying, that ‘‘ of course the earliest applicants will be sure of obtaining till all is gone, which would scarcely give a barrel toa State. * * Years must elapse before the country can be supplied as it now is with Herds-grass and clover seed. My offer invites co-operation and participation in the profits and pleasures now available”—for taking advantage of the honest eredulity of the public? A quantity of bromus seed was sent to the State Farm for the purpose of experiment, with a letter with directions to sow with clover in the spring of 1855. The crop was cut while yet green, and before the grass had developed sufficiently to distinguish it with certainty. This present year (1856) directions were given to let it stand later in the season. While engaged in the collec- tion and study of specimens in the course of the summer, I gathered samples of this grass when it was still immature, the spikelets having very much the appearance indicated in Fig. 51. Without giving it a very close examination at the time, I pronounced it the bromus arvensis, which at that stage of its growth it very much resembles. A few days after, I was aston- ished to see it develop into Chess (bromus secalinus.) This was the first ripe specimen of Willard’s bromus I had seen. I examined it with care with a strong magnifying glass, and to avoid the possibility of mistake, I submitted specimens of it to Prof. Gray, of Cambridge, and to Prof. Dewey, of Rochester, New York, both of whom, after examination, pronounced it genuine chess. But Mr. Willard having quoted from the report of a commit- tee of an agricultural society in which it was said that if a “jury of eows should confirm the opinion of Mr. Willard as to the 54 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. superiority of the grass, then will the agricultural community owe him a debt of gratitude for having introduced to notice here a species of grass which is highly beneficial on light sandy soils, ‘much superior to any other species, and producing most abun- dantly on land of better quality,’ I very recently directed this grass to be submitted to such a jury, empanelled and kept under the charge of Mr. L. P. Chamberlain at the State Farm, which unhesitatingly pronounced a verdict in accor dange ‘ith the facts, which were as follows :— The grass which was first submitted for comparison with the bromus was the Reed Canary grass, (phalaris arundinacea,) a grass of very slight nutritive and palatable qualities, as will appear by reference on a subsequent page to the careful analysis made of it at my request by Prof. E. N. Horsford, of the Law- rence Scientific School, Cambridge. The English hay used was such as commonly goes by that name among farmers, made up of Timothy and Redtop mainly, of fair quality. The meadow or swale hay was taken from a wet meadow, made up of coarse swale grasses, such as are common in eastern Massachusetts, and pass under the term of ‘“‘ meadow hay.” The bromus was carefully picked out from all other grasses. The two kinds given in each trial were put into the same crib, but separated by a partition. First trial—Bromus and reed canary grass. There was no choice. Both were eaten alike till they were gone. Second—Bromus and English hay; preferred English hay. Third—Bromus and swale hay ; “. «swale. Fourth—Bromus and oat straw ; ‘¢ ~~ bromus. Fifth—Canary grass and English hay; ‘ English hay. Sixth—Canary grass and swale ; ‘¢ swale at once. Seventh—Canary grass and oat straw; ‘ oat straw. Wighth—Canary grass and cornstalks; “ — cornstalks. Ninth—Bromus and cornstalks. Ate nearly alike of each till both were gone. ' Tenth—Bromus and millet. Chose the millet and did not touch the bromus. This is a true transcript of the verdict of that intelligent jury, and it is precisely what I should have anticipated from what I knew of the grasses. The trial by jury should be final. It,is unnecessary to say that ‘‘ Cheat” is a troublesome weed NATURAL HISTORY. 55 to the farmer, especially when it appears in his grain fields. It is an early grass, but the quantity of herbage, and especially its quality, make it unfit for cultivation. Indeed, the only species of any value, or at all fit for cultivation, belonging to this large genus of grasses, is the bromus arvensis, and even that has been discarded from modern agriculture. I have been thus minute in speaking of this grass, because I have felt it my duty to disabuse the minds of farmers with regard to it, a duty in which I have recently, and since the above was written, been anticipated by my friend, Sanford Howard, Esq., author of a valuable paper on the Ciaswold in the rPdiveablions of the New York State Agricultural Sokiates for 1855. Thave but little acquaintance with, and no prejudice against, Mr. Willard, but regret exceedingly that he or any one else should make a mistake so serious to the community, and take so much pains to propagate “ cheat.” Fortunately the plant is annual. The fact of its having been cut before it was ripe, in 1855, accounts for its growing on the same piece in 1856. SmoorH Brome Grass, or Upricut Curss, (bromus race- mosus,) has a panicle erect, simple, rather narrow, contracted when in fruit. Flowers closer than in the preceding, lower palea exceeding the upper, bearing an awn of its own length. Stem erect, round, more slender than in chess, sheaths slightly hairy. In other respects it is very much like Willard’s bromus, but may always be distinguished from it as well as from bromus arvensis, in the summit of the large glume being half-way be- tween its base and the summit of the third floret, on the same side ; whereas in Willard’s bromus the summit of the large glume is halfway between its base and summit of the second floret. This character is constant, and offers the surest mark of distinction. It is common in grain fields. Flowers in June. It is worthless for cultivation. Sorr Cuess, or Sorr Brome Grass, (bromus mollis,) is some- times found. . I procured beautiful specimens of it at Nantucket, where it was growing in the turf with other grasses on a sandy soil near the shore. Its panicle is erect, closely contracted in fruit, spikelets conical, ovate, stems erect, more or less hairy, with the hairs pointing downwards from twelve to eighteen inches high, joints four or five, slightly hairy, leaves flat, stri- ated, hairy on both sides, rough at the edges and points; sum- 56 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. mit of the large glume midway between its base and the apex of the third floret, by which it is always distinguished from Willard’s bromus. Flowers in June. Birds are fond of the seed, which are large and ripen early. Of no value for culti- vation. The Witp Cuess, (bromus kalmii,) is another species, found often in dry, open wood-lands. It has a small, simple panicle, with the spikelets drooping on hairy peduncles, seven to twelve flowered and silky ; awn only one-third the length of the lanee- shaped flower, stem slender, eighteen inches to three feet high, leaves and sheaths hairy. Flowers in June and July. Of no | value for cultivation. : Frincep Brome Grass, (bromus ciliatus,) is often found in woods and on rocky hills and river banks. It has a compound panicle, very loose, nodding, spikelets seven to twelve flowered, flowers tipped with an awn half to three-fourths their length, stem three to four feet high, with large leaves. Flowers in July and August. Of no value for cultivation. The Meapow Brome Grass, (bromus pratensis,) is a peren- nial weed in the corn fields of England, and is only recom- mended in any part of Europe for dry, arid soils, where nothing better will grow. Fig. 52 represents this grass, and Fig. 53 a magnified spikelet. Not one of the brome grasses is worthy of a moment’s attentidn as a cultivated agricultural grass, and the cleaner the farmer keeps his fields of them the better. The Common Reep Grass, (phragmites communis,) is a very tall, broad-leaved grass, with the flower in a large terminal pani- cle. It looks at a little distance very much like broomcorn ; stem five to twelve feet high. It grows on the borders of ponds and swamps. It is said to be the largest grass in the United States. It occurs in several localities in Franklin County, and it is not uncommon in the eastern part of the State. Flowers in September. PERENNIAL RYE Grass, common DARNEL, (lolium perenne.) Generic characters—spikelets many flowered, solitary on each joint of the continuous rachis, placed edgewise. Specific charac- ters—stem erect, smooth, fifteen inches to two feet high, root pe- rennial, fibrous, joints four or five, smooth, often purplish, leaves dark green, lanceolate, acute, flat, smooth on the outer surface NATURAL HISTORY. oe So — oa = Fig. 52. Meadow Brome Grass. : Tig. 54. Rye Grass. and roughish on the inner, glume much shorter than the spike- let, flowers six to nine, awnless. Flowers in June. Shown in Fig. 54. Fig. 55 represents a magnified spikelet of this plant. This grass has had the reputation in Great Britain, for many years, of being one of the most important and valuable of the cultivated grasses. It is probably much better adapted to a wet “and uncertain climate, than to one subject almost annually to droughts, which often continue many weeks, parching up every 8 a 58 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. green thing. There is, perhaps, no grass, the characteristics of which vary so much from the influences of soil, climate and cul- ture as perennial rye grass. Certain it is that this grass has been cultivated in England since 1674, and in the south of France from time immemorial. It is admitted to be inferior in nutri- tive value to orchard erass, (dactylis glomerata,) when green. Whenever it is cut for hay, it is necessary to take it in the blossom, or very soon after, since otherwise it becomes hard and wiry, and is not relished by stock of any kind ; and it changes very rapidly after blossoming, from a state in which it contains the greatest amount of.water, sugar, &c., and the least amount of woody fibre—into the state in which it possesses the least amount of water, sugar, &c., and the greatest amount of woody fibre and other insoluble solid matter. A specimen analyzed about the 20th of June, and found to contain 814 per cent. of water and 183 per cent. of solid matter, was found only three weeks later to contain only 69 per cent. water, and 81 per cent. solid matter. It is undoubtedly a valuable grass, and worthy of attention ; but it is not.to be compared, for the purposes of New England agriculture, to Timothy or to orchard grass. .It pro- duces abundance of seed, soon arrives at maturity, is relished by stock, likes a variety of soils, all of which it exhausts ; lasts six or seven years, and then dies out. Irautan Rye Grass, (lolium ttalicum,) has been recently introduced into this State, and is now undergoing experiment which will assist in determining its value for us. It differs from perennial rye grass in the florets having long, ‘slender awns, and from bearded darnel, (lolium temulentum,) in the glumes being shorter than the spikelets. This difference will be manifest on reference to Fig. 56, and Fig. 57, which repre- sents a magnified spikelet. It turfs less than the perennial rye grass, its stems are higher, its leaves are larger and of a lighter green, it gives an early, quick and successive growth till late in the fall. To say that it is, or would be, the best grass in our climate and on our soils, would be altogether premature; but it has the credit abroad of being equally suited to all the climates of Qurope, giving more abundant crops, of a better quality, and better relished by animals than the perennial rye grass. It is one of the greatest gluttons of all the grasses either eultivated > NATURAL HISTORY. 59 hlg@e — . we a oe {3 * fi IZ ‘ \N 4 Z| IBS EN | Fig. 56. Italian Rye Grass. Fig. 59. Fig. 58. Many-flowered Darnel. or wild, and will endure any amount of forcing by irrigation or otherwise, while it is said to stand a drought remarkably well. The soils best adapted to it seem to be moist, fertile and tena- cious, or of a medium consistency; and on such soils it is said to be one of the best grasses known to cut green for soiling, affording repeated luxuriant and nutritive crops. I have not seen enough of it to speak from personal observation or experi- ence of the comparative profit of this grass and Timothy for cultivation here, but its comparative nutritive value is well 60 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. known from the thorough and reliable analyses of Prof. Way. By these it appears that 100 parts of Timothy grass, as taken from the field, contain 57.21 per cent. of water, 4.86 per cent. of albuminous or flesh forming principles, 1.50 per cent. of fatty matters, 22.85 per cent. of heat producing principles, such as starch, gum, sugar, &c., 11.32 per cent. of woody fibre, and 2.26 of mineral matter or ash, while 100 parts of Italian rye grass taken from the same kind of soil and in the same condi- tion, green, contained 75.61 per cent. of water, 2.45 of albu- minous or flesh forming principles, .80 of fatty matters, 14.11 of heat producing principles, starch, gum and sugar, 4.82 of woody fibre, and 2.21 of mineral matter or ash. Of these, the flesh forming principles, fatty matters, and heat producing principles, are, of course, by far the most important; and in all these our favorite Timothy very far excels the Italian rye grass, showing a nutritive value nearly double. Nor has the Italian rye grass any advantage over Timothy or Herds-grass in the dried state, though the difference is by no means so marked, the former dried at 212° Fahrenheit containing 10.10 per cent. of flesh forming principles, the latter 11.86; the former containing 3.27 per cent. of fatty matter, the latter 3.55; the former containing 57.82 per cent. of heat forming principles, the latter 53.35. There are 432,000 seeds in a pound of Italian rye grass and from thirteen to eighteen pounds in a bushel. The BrearpEpD DarneL, (lolium temulentum,) is sometimes found in our grain fields, with its glume equalling the five to seven flowered spikelets, and awn longer than the flower. Its grain is poisonous—almost the only instance known among the grasses. The Many-FLowEreD DarneL, (lolium multiflorum,) is, per- haps, the most showy species of rye grass, cultivated. It is but very rarely, if ever, met with here, though it was intro- duced from France to England about thirty years ago, and is cultivated to some extent. Fig. 58 shows the appearance of this grass, and Fig. 59 a magnified spikelet. It is very nearly allied, if not identical with Italian rye grass. Couch Grass, QuircH Grass, Twitch Grass, Doc Grass, CHANDLER Grass, &c., (triticum repens.) The chief generic marks of this grass are, three or several flowered spikelets, NATURAL HISTORY. 61 compressed, with the flat side towards the rachis; glumes nearly equal and opposite, nerved, lower palea like the glumes convex on the back, awned from the tip, upper flattened, stamens three ; mostly annuals, but others are perennials, to.which the couch grass belongs. The specific characters of couch grass are, roots creeping extensively, stem erect, round, smooth, from one to two or two and a half feet high, striated, having five or six flat leaves with smooth, striated sheaths; the joints are smooth, the two uppermost very remote, leaves dark green, acute, upper one broader than the lower ones, roughish, sometimes hairy on the ~ inner surface, smooth on the lower half. Inflorescence in ‘ spikes. Flowers in June and July. In- ' troduced from Hurope. (Figs. 60 and 61.) This plant is gen- erally regarded by farmers as a trouble- some weed, and ef- forts are made to get ridofit. Its long, creeping roots, branching in every direction, take complete pos- session of the soil and impoverish it. When green, however, it is very much relished by cattle, and if cut in the blossom it makes a nutritious hay. Dogs eat the leaves of this grass and those. of “ one other species for their medici- nal qualities in exciting vomiting. I have seen acres of it on the Con- Fig. 60. Couch, or Twitch Grass. necticut River meadows, where it ; had taken possession and grew luxuriantly, and is called wheat grass, from its resemblance to wheat. It goes in different parts of the State by a great Vig. 61. 62 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. variety of names, as Quake grass, Quack grass, Squitch grass. It is important to destroy it if possible, and the means of doing it will be alluded to on a subsequent page. SQUIRREL-TAIL GRASS, (hordeum jubatum,) is widely diffused over our salt marshes. Its specific characters are a slender stem, smooth, about two feet high, with rather short leaves, and low, lateral, abortive, neutral flowers on a short pedicel, short awned, the perfect flower bearing an extremely long awn about the length of the similar hairy glumes, all spreading. It is com- mon on moist sands and marshes on the sea shore. Flowers in June. The common two-rowed barley, (hordeum distichum,) belongs also to the same genus as well as the common four or six-rowed barley, (hordeum vulgare.) LymE Grass, Witp Rye, (elymus virginicus,) is frequent along the banks of rivers. Its generic characteristics are two to four spikelets at each joint of the rachis, all fertile, each one to seven flowered, glumes both on one side of the spikelet, palez two, lower one usually awned, mostly perennial, some species annual. | Specific description: Spike upright, dense and thick on a short peduncle usually included in the sheath ; two or three spikelets together, two or three flowered, smooth, shortly awned, stamens three, stems stout, from two to three feet high, leaves broad and rough. Flowers in July and August. Of no special value as an agricultural grass. CanapIAN Lyme Grass, (elymus canadensis.) Spike rather loose and curving at the extremity, spikelets mostly in pairs of three to five, long awned, rough, hairy flowers, the lance awl- shaped glumes, tipped with shorter awns, stem three to four feet high, root creeping, leaves broad, flat, linear, sheaths smooth and | ligule short. Flowers in August. It is common on the banks of rivers. StenpER Harry Lyme Grass, (elymus striatus,) is sometimes found in rocky woods and on the banks of streams, as the most slender and smallest flowered species of this genus. It flowers in July, and is so rare and of so little value as an agricultural grass, as not to need further description. Upricut SEA Lyme Grass, (elymus arenarius.) This grass, which much resembles beach grass, grows from two to five NATURAL HISTORY. 63 feet high, with a perennial long creeping root, stem erect, round, _ smooth, leaves long, narrow, hard, greyish, pointed, grooved, rolled in, smooth behind and rough on the inner surface. It flowers in July. Differs from the common beach grass in having a short obtuse ligule, and spikelets without footstalks, of three or four florets, while beach grass has a leng and pointed ligule, and spikelets with footstalks, and of only one floret. Sinclair calls this grass the sugar cane of Great Britain. It contains a large quantity of saccharine matter, and it is proba- ble that mixed with beach grass, as it is in Holland, it would be valuable to cut up and mix with common hay for winter feed. It is used precisely as beach grass is here, to prevent the encroachments of the sea, and to arrest the drifting of sand. It is not found growing wild in this country as beach grass is. I have cultivated it, by way of a partial experiment, on Nahant Beach, and it has been sown in other parts of the country. BOTTLE-BRUSH GRASS, (gymnostichum hystriz,) is found rather commonly in moist rocky woodlands, and along shaded banks of streams, and may be known by its loose upright spike and spreading spikelets, smooth sheaths and leaves, smoothish flow- ers tipped with an awn three times their length. Flowers in July. . ‘Woop Harr Grass, or Common Harr Grass, (atra flexuosa,) is a common grass on our dry and rocky hills, and road sides, and high upon Wachuset Mountain. The generic name is the Greek aira, darnel, or tares, and its characteristics are, two flowered spikelets, in an open diffuse panicle; flowers both per- fect, shorter than the glumes, hairy at the base, lower palea thrée to five nerved, awned on the back, grain oblong, smooth. Specific chargcters: Stems slender, one to two feet high, nearly naked, leaves dark green, often curved, bristle-formed, branches of the panicle hairy, spreading, mostly in pairs, lower palea slightly toothed, awn starting near the base, bent in the middle, longer than the glumes, which are purplish—perennial. Flowers in June. This plant is sometimes found 38,500 feet above the level of the sea. Sheep eat it readily. Of no value for cultivation.. Fig. 62 represents this grass in blossom, and Fig. 63 a magnified flower of it. It contains when dry but .63 per cent. of nitrogen. Hassock Grass, (aira c@spitosa,) also belongs to this genus 64 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. aira. Stems erect, round, rough- ish, in close tufts, leaves flat, linear, acute, with roughish stri- ated sheaths, upper sheath longer than its leaf, panicle pyramidal or oblong, large, at first€lrooping, afterwards erect, with branches spreading in every direction ; awn barely equalling the palea, outer palea of lower floret shorter than the glumes, membranous, jagged or four-toothed on the summit, hairy at the base, with slender awn rising from a little above the base, and extending searcely above the palea. Dis- tinguished from aira flexuosa in the awn of the lower floret not protruding beyond the glumes of the calyx. In aira flexuosa the awn. of the lower floret protrudes more than one-third its length beyond the glumes. It has an unsightly look in fields and pastures, on \, account of its growing in YX tufts or clusters or has- | , socks. Cattle seldom \ touchit. Prefers stiffor \% marshy bottoms, where the water stands. June. Water Hair Grass, (aira aquatica.) Fig. 64. This grass Mr. Curtis calls the sweetest of the British grasses, and equal to any foreign one. Its stems and leaves, when green, have a sweet and agreeable taste like that of liquorice. Water fowls are said to be very fond of the seeds and the fresh green shoots. Cattle also eat it very readily. Itis strictly an aquatic, but can be cultivated on imperfectly drained bogs and muddy bottoms. Not common. It flowers in July. b) hi Vi g S- Fig. 63. Vig. 62. Wood Hair Grass. NATURAL HISTORY. 65 Fig. 64. Water Hair Grass Fig. 65. Downy Oat Grass. Witp Oat Grass, WuitTEe Top, (danthonia spicata,) is com- mon in dry, sunny pastures, with a stem one foot high, slender, with short leaves, narrow sheaths, bearded ; panicle simple, spikelets seven flowered, lower palea broadly ovate, loosely hairy on the back, longer than its awl-shaped teeth—perennial. Flowers in June. It is called white top in some localities, but is not the grass most commonly known by that name—the agrostis alba. 9 66 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. Downy Persoon, (trisetwm mollis,) is a grass with dense panicles, much contracted, oblong or linear, awn bent or diverg- ing, lower palea compressed, keeled, leaves flat and short ; found on rocky river banks and mountains, about one foot high. It flowers in July. Of no agricultural value. The Downy Oat Grass, (trisetum pubescens,) is a very hardy perennial grass, naturalized on chalky soils, and on such soils its leaves are covered with a coating of downy hairs which it loses when cultivated on better lands. It is regarded as a good permanent pasture grass on account of its hardiness and its being but a slight impoverisher of the soil, and yielding a larger per cent. of bitter extractive than other grasses grown on poor, light soils. It is therefore recommended abroad as a prominent ingredient of mixtures for pastures. It flowers early in July. Fig. 65 represents this plant as it appears in blossom. Formerly classed as avena pubescens. Meapow Oat Grass, (avena pratensis, Fig. 66,) is a peren- nial grass, native of the pastures of Great Britain, growing to the height of about eighteen inches. It furnishes a hay of medium quality. Flourishes best on dry soils. Flowers in July. Figs. 67 and 68 represent the flowers of this grass magnified. The YELLow Oat Grass, (avena flavescens, now generally classified as trisetum flavescens,) can scarcely, perhaps, be regarded as naturalized here. Itis a perennial plant of slow erowth and medium quality, furnishing a hay containing about 1.79 per cent. of azote or nitrogen ; suitable for dry meadows and pastures. It is sometimes regarded as a weed, growing about eighteen inches high. It fails if cultivated alone, but succeeds with other grasses, and is said to be the most useful for fodder, of the oat grasses. It grows best with the crested dog’s tail and sweet scented vernal. It contains a larger pro- portion of bitter extractive than most other grasses, and for that reason is recommended by some [English writers as a valuable pasture grass. It flowers in July. Fig. 69 represents this grass, and Fig. 70 a flower of it magnified. TaLL Meapow Oat Grass, or TaLt Oat Grass, (arrhena- therum avenaceum,) is the avena elatior of Linneus. Specific characters: Spikelets open panicled, two flowered, lower flower staminate, bearing along bent awn below the middle of the back; leaves flat, acute, roughish on both sides, most on the* NATURAL HISTORY. 67 Fig. 67. Fig. 66. Meadow Oat Grass. Fig. 70. Fig. 69. Yellow Oat Grass. inner; panicle leaning slightly on one side, glumes very unequal; stems from two to three feet high, root perennial, fibrous, sometimes bulbous. It is readily distinguished from other grasses by its having two florets, the lower one having a long awn rising from a little above the base of the outer palea. Introduced. Flowers in June and July. Shown in Fig. 71. A magnified spikelet is seen in Fig. 72. This is the Ray grass of France. It produces an abundant 68 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. Fig. 71. Tall Meadow Oat Grass. Fig. 75. Fig. 78. Meadow Soft Grass. supply of foliage, and is valuable either for hay or for pasture, and has been especially recommended for soiling purposes, on account of its early and luxuriant growth. It is often found on the borders of fields and hedges, woods and pastures, and some- times very plenty in mowing lands. After being mown it shoots up a very thick aftermath, and on this account, partly, is regarded as nearly equal for excellence to the common foxtail, (alopecurus pratensis.) NATURAL HISTORY. 69 It grows spontaneously on deep, sandy soils, when once naturalized. It has been cultivated to some extent in New England, and is esteemed by those who know it, mainly for its early, rapid and late growth, making it very well calculated as ’ a permanent pasture grass. It will succeed on tenacious clover soils. Merapow Somr Grass, VELVET Grass, (holcus lanatus,) has its spikelets crowded in a somewhat open panicle, and an awn with the lower part perfectly smooth. 'The generic characters are, two flowered spikelets jointed with the pedicels, glumes boat-shaped, membranaceous, inclosing and exceeding the flowers ; lower flower perfect, its lower palea awnless and point- less, upper flower staminate only, bearing a stout bent awn below the apex. Stamens three; grain free, slightly grooved. This species grows from one to two feet high, stem erect, round, root perennial, fibrous, leaves four or five, with soft, downy sheaths, upper sheath much longer than its leaf, inflated, ligule obtuse, joints usually four, generally covered with soft, downy hairs the points of which are turned downwards; leaves pale green, flat, broad, acute, soft on both sides, covered with deli- cate slender hairs. Inflorescence compound panicled, of a greenish, reddish or pinkish tinge; hairy glumes, oblong, tipped with a minute bristle. Florets of two pales. Flowers in June. Introduced. In Fig. 73,is seen a drawing of this grass, and in Figs. 74 and 75, its flowers magnified. This beautiful grass grows in moist fields and peaty soils, but [have found it on dry, sandy soils on Nantucket, and specimens have been sent me from Boxford and other places where it grew on upland fields, and was cultivated with other grasses. It is productive and easy of cultivation. It is of but little value either for pasture or hay, cattle not being fond of it. When once introduced it will readily spread from its light seeds which are easily dispersed by the wind. It does not merit cultivation except on poor, peaty lands, where better grasses will not suc- ceed. This grass loses about .68 of its weight in drying, and the hay contains about 1.92 per cent. of nitrogen. The Creepinc Sorr Grass, (holcus mollis, Fig. 76,) not yet naturalized here. It is of no value, and is regarded as a troublesome weed. Distinguished from the preceding by its 70 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. NES: pe, \ . SS f Va WAY GZ Z Ee SSS =y Fig. 76. Creeping Soft Grass. Fig. 81. Fig. 79. Sweet-scented Vernal. * awned floret and its creeping root. The flowers of this grass are scen magnified in Figs. 77 and 78. Seneca Grass, or VANILLA Grass, (hierochloa borealis,) has spikelets three flowered, flowers all with two palea, branches of the panicle smooth; grows from twelve to eighteen inches high. Stems erect, round, smooth, panicle somewhat spreading, rather one sided, leaves short, broad, lanceolate, rough on the inner side, smooth behind; spikelets rather large. NATURAL HISTORY. 71 Grows in wet meadows. Flowers in May. Common and gen- erally diffused, but of no value for cultivation, on account of its powerful, creeping roots and very slight spring foliage. It derived its generic name, hierochloa, holy grass, from two Greek words, signifying sacred gra: _—_ from the fact that it was customary to strew it before the doors of the churches on festi- val and saint’s days, in the north of Europe. In Sweden it is sold to be hung up over beds, where it is supposed to induce sleep. SwEEt SceNTED VERNAL Grass, (anthoxanthum odoratum.) Specific characteristics: Spikelets spreading, three flowered, lateral flowers neutral, with one palea, hairy on the outside and awned on the back; glumes thin, acute, keeled, the upper twice as long as the lower; seed ovate, adhering to the palea which incloses it; root perennial. Flowers in May and June. Stems from one and a half to two feet high. Introduced from Europe. This grass is seen in Fig. 79. This is one of the earliest spring grasses, as well as one of the latest in the autumn. Itis almost the only grass that is fragrant. It possesses a property peculiar to this species, or possessed by only a few others, known as coumarin. It is said to be this which not only gives it its own aromatic odor, but imparts it to other grasses with which itis cured. The green leaves when bruised give out this perfume to the fingers, and the plant may thus be known. The grasshas but little value of itself, its nutritive properties being slight; nor is it much relished by stock of any kind, but as a pasture grass on almost all soils, and with a large mixture of other grasses, it is very valuable for its early growth, and this gives it the character of a permanent pasture grass. It is not uncommon in our pastures and road sides, growing as if it were indigenous. I have found fine specimens of it on dry soils at Nantucket and elsewhere. The aftermath or fall growth of this beautiful grass is said to be richer in nutritive qualities than the growth of the spring. Though itis pretty generally diffused over the country, it is only on certain soils that it takes complete possession of the surface and forms the predominant grass in a permanent turf, as it is said to do in some sections around Philadelphia. The flavor of the spring butter sold in that city is ascribed by some 72 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. to the prevalence of this grass. There seems to be nothing inconsistent in this supposition, since it is well known that dis- agreeable flavors are often imparted to the milk and the butter by the substances taken as food by the cow, as turnips, for instance, or cabbages, or cauliflowers; and if an objectionable flavor may be imparted by one substance, it is reasonable to sup- pose an opposite flavor may be given by another. Much, of course, depends on the manufacture ; as poor butter is found in the Philadelphia market, as in any other, while as good could be, and is found, in the Boston market as any in the world. The best butter, I learn on inquiry, is as expensive in the former city as elsewhere,/while it is true that a high price will command and obtain a good article wherever the art of butter making is at all understood. : Iam informed by Dr. Emerson, of Piiladelpiaa, to whom I am indebted for valuable specimens of this grass, that he has made experiments in flavoring other grasses with a slight addition of benzoic acid in the form of an essence, previous to feeding them out to milch cows, and that the flavor of the best Philadelphia spring butter was thus imparted to the butter made from them. | A curious and beautiful peculiarity is exhibited in the seeds of this grass, by which they are prevented from germinating in wet weather after approaching maturity, and thus becoming abortive. The husks of the blossom adhering to the seed when ripe, and the jointed awn by its spiral contortions, when affected by the alternate moisture and dryness of the atmosphere, act like levers to separate and lift it out from the calyx even before the grass is bent or lodged and while the spike is still erect. If the hand is moistened and the seeds placed in it, they will appear to move like insects, from the uncoiling of the spiral twist of the awns attached to them. The flowers of the sweet scented vernal grass are seen in Figs. 80 and 81. There are 923,200 seeds in a pound, and eight pounds in a bushel. It cannot be said to belong to the grasses useful for general cultivation. Reep Canary Grass, (phalaris arundinacea.) Generic characteristics : Spikelets crowded in a dense or spiked panicle, perfect flower flattish with two neutral rudiments of flowers, one NATURAL HISTORY. (6) on each side at its base, awnless, two shining palee, closely inclosing the smooth, flattened grain ; stamens three. Specific description : panicle very slightly branched, clustered, somewhat spreading when old, but not so much generally, as appears in Fig. 82; glumes Hee at rudimentary florets hairy, > Fig. 82. Reed Canary Grass. stem round, smooth, erect, from two to seven feet high, leaves Sie or six in number, broad, lightish green, acute, harsh, flat, ribbed, central rib the most prominent, roughish on both surfaces, edges minutely toothed, smooth, stri- ated sheaths. Flowersin July. Grows on wet grounds by the sides of rivers and standing pools, best suited to somewhat tenacious soils. A beautiful variety of this species is the Rippon or Srripep Grass of the gardens, familiar to every one. The reed canary grass grows in the utmost luxuriance at the State Farm, at Westborough, and produces a large and early crop. It will bear cutting two or three times in a season, but if not cut early, the foliage is coarse. Cattle are not fond of it at any stage _ of its ‘aiid but if cut early and well cured, they will eat , it in the winter if they can get nothing better. For some experiments with this hay in compari- son with others, see p. 61. This grass is common in low, rich soils where the water is either stand- ing or sluggish, and is not unfrequently produced by transplanting the roots of the striped grass into suitable soils. In one instance within my knowledge, it came in and produced an exceedingly heavy crop, simply from roots of ribbon grass 10 T4 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS, which had been dug up froma garden and thrown into the brook to get them out of the way. Several other instances of a smilar nature have also come to my notice. One farmer has propagated it extensively in his wet meadows by forcing the ripe seed panicles into the mud with his feet. As the stripe of the ribbon grass is only accidental, dependent on location and soil, it constitutes only a variety of the reed canary grass and loses the stripe when transferred to a wet and muddy soil. The cut, Fig. 82, was made from a specimen too far advanced to show this grass as it ordinarily appears; the panicle or head is too spreading and not sufficiently long. I have fine speci- mens with panicles three times as long as appears in the draw- ing, and more in the shape of a spike of Timothy. To ascertain the exact nutritive qualities of this grass when cured as hay, a careful analysis has been made at my request, by Prof. E. N. Horsford, of Cambridge, with the following result: Of water, the specimen contained 10.42 per cent. ; ash, 5.51 per cent.; nitrogen, .55 per cent.; nitrogenous ingredi- ents, flesh forming principles, 3.53 per cent.; woody fibre, starch, gum, sugar, &c., 80.73 per cent.* It will be seen by * The following are the details of this valuable analysis :— Ist. Of the Leaves stripped from the Culms or Stalks; 2d. Of the Stalks from which the Leaves and Joints were removed ; and 3d. Of the Joints. Weight of different portions of the Plant. Grammes. Ary. Gr’s. I. Leaves of four Stalks, air-dried, weighed, . 5 . 5 3 . it Pes ity m9 ge se oe gf - ; : nine - 2.8740 I. Four Stalks, without Joints, or Leayes, air-dried, weighed, . -. prt Boge i: 4 ce ee us “ ©) oe LS I. Joints of four Stalks, air-dried, weighed, . . «6 ee wait el II. J 4 4 oS . : ee te tees -4088 Average Total, i 5 = 7.0205 Grammes. Average weight of Stalks with Leaves and Joints, 1.7551 Grammes. Water Determination. I. Of the Leaves, .9284 grammes lost at a temperature of 212° Fah. .1014 grammes—equal to 10.98 per cent. II. Of the Stalks, 1.9836 grammes lost at 212° Fah. .1902 grammes—equal to 9.58 per cent. Ill. Of the Joints. 2.4529 grammes lost at 212° Fah. .2680 grammes—equal to 10.72 per cent. Ash Determination. I. Of the Leaves, air-dried, 2.92389 grammes gave .2590 grammes Ash—equal to 8.85 per cent. II. Of the Stalks, air-dried, 4.1167 grammes gave .1475 grammes Ash—equal to 3.58 per cent. Ill. Of the Joints, air-dried, .6161 grammes ga e .0181 grammes Ash—equal to 3.50 per cent, ‘NATURAL HISTORY. 75 reference to a subsequent page, containing analyses by Prof. Way, that this grass is very far inferior to many of the grasses examined by him. The panicles of this grass if allowed to stand after the time’of flowering, become filled with ergot, or long, black spurs, issuing from between the glumes, and occu- None of the above ashes effervesced with acid, indicating the absence of carbonates. They gave but the faintest reaction for lime. Indeed micro- scopic, as well as chemical examination, showed the Ash to be composed almost entirely of Silica. Nitrogen Determination. I. Of the Leaves, 1.4870 grammes, air-dried, gave .2600 grammes of Platino-Chloride of Ammo- nium—equal to 1.18 per cent. of Nitrogen, and 7.21 per cent. of Nitrogenous ingredients. II. Of the Stalks, air-dried, 1.6009 grammes gave .0205 grammes Platino-Chloride of Ammo- nium—equal to .08 per cent. of Nitrogen, and .51 per cent. of Nitrogenous ingredients. III. Of the Joints, air-dried, 2.4529 grammes gave .1789 grammes Platino-Chloride of Ammo- uium—equal to .45 per cent. of Nitrogen, and 2.87 per cent. of Nitrogenous ingredients. The preceding results, in tabular form, appear as follows :— Relative Weight of different portions. » Average of one percentage. Leaves of four Stalks, . : 5 7 2.8989 grammes. -7247 grammes. 41.29 Four Stalks, . 7 : : : ; 3.6592 -9148 52.12 Joints of four Stalks, . - : : 4624 1156 6.59 100.00 Average weight of ene plant without the roots, . : : ‘ 1.7551 grammes. Percentages. Nitrogenous Woody Fibre, Starch, Water. Ash. Nitrogen. Ingredients.* Sugar, &c. Leaves, . 7, = 40.98 8.85 1.13 _ 7.21 72.96 Stalks, . é 9.58 3.58 08 51 86.33 SOWIES Sey ees — Aste 38.50 45 2.87 82.91 For comparison as to the relative nutritive values, there follow some deter- minations made of hay from several localities by Henneberg and Thos. Way. Hay analyzed gave Nitrogen. Nitrogenous Ingredients. For Leaves, . : ich duds For Stalks, . : -08 5.71 per cent.t 3.53 per cent. For Joints, . - - A5 Clover, . z c F 3 . 1.57 P 19:08 “7% Hay, No. 1, saline soil, 4 1.49 Salk 7 “No. 2, May, A : = 1.39 SST tus “ “June, ehh! ee 1.49 RH ks s¢ October, . : . 1.70 10.85 It will be seen that some of the samples contain nearly three times as much of Nitrogenous Ingredients as the sample submitted for examination, and it will be inferred from this consideration that, other things being equal, the hay at the head of the list is decidedly inferior in nutritive value. * Three parts of Nitrogen correspond with 19.16 parts of Nitrogenous Ingredients, as vegetable albumen, fibrin and casein. + Estimated according to percentages of different parts. 76 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. pying the place of grain. This, if there were no other reason, would be sufficient to determine that it should be cut at or before the time of flowering: I have never seen rye worse affected than my specimens of this grass’ are. The effects of this mysterious disease are well known. The noxious’ power it exerts on the system of animals which receive even a small portion of it, is oftentimes dreadful, producing ‘ most hor- rible gangrenes, rotting of the extremities, internal tortures and agonizing death; it has been known to slough and kill not afew human beings who have accidentally ee eaten grain or flour infected with it.” The flower of the reed canary grass is shown in Fig. 83. The variety called striped grass, (colorata,) is exceedingly hardy and may be propagated to any extent by dividing and transplanting the roots. In moist soil it spreads rapidly and forms a thick mass of fodder which might be repeatedly cut without injury, though it is of little value for feeding stock. The Common Canary Grass, (phalaris canariensis,) is cul- tivated in gardens, and to some extent in fields and waste places for the sake of the seed for the canary bird. It has a spiked, oval panicle, glumes wing-keeled ; rudimentary flowers smooth and half the length of the perfect one. Flowers in July and August. Mituer Grass, (millium effusum,) is found growing com- monly in moist, shady woods, mountain meadows, and on the borders of streams. Panicle widely diffuse, compound, glumes ovate, very obtuse, leaves broad and flat, thin, root perennial, flower oblong. Flowers in June. Introduced. Of no value for cultivation, the foliage possessing but slight nutritive quali- ties. The seeds are sought by birds. It will thrive trans- planted to open places. Hairy SLENDER PAsPALUM, (paspalum setaceum,) has an erect or decumbent, slender lin! from one to. two feet high, leaves and sheaths hairy, spikes slender, smooth, mostly solitary on a long peduncle, spikelets narrowly two rowed. Flowers in August. Itis found on sandy fields and plains near the coast, and is rather common. SLENDER CrAB Grass, (panicum filiforme,) is anotherspecies of the subgenus digitaria, or finger grasses, and resembles the last somewhat, but the upper glume equals the flower, while the NATURAL HISTORY. We lower is nearly wanting, and the spikes are more erect. It flourishes on sandy, dry soils, especially near the coast. Flow- ers in August. Of no value for cultivation. ” SmootH Cras Grass, (panicum glabrum,) resembles the last, with the spikes digitate, three to four, spreading, rachis flat and thin, spikelets ovoid. It is common in cultivated grounds, waste places, and on sandy fields. Flowers in August and September. A troublesome weed. Fincer Grass, Common Cras Grass, (panicum sanguinale.) The panic grasses are widely spread and common over the State. The generic characters are, two flowered panicled spikelets, flowers with or without awns, glumes two, lower one short or minute, the upper long as the fertile flower, upper flower per- fect, closed, flattish, awnless, stamens three. The stems of the finger grass are from one to two feet high, erect, spreading, leaves and sheaths hairy, spikes four to fifteen, digitate, upper glume half the length of the flower, lower one small. This grass grows on waste or neglected cultivated grounds and gardens, and yards, and is generally regarded as a troublesome weed. Introduced. Flowers from August to October. AGROSTIS-LIKE Panic Grass, (panicum agrostoides,) differs from the preceding species in having the stems flattened, upright, two feet high, leaves long, sheaths smooth, spikelets on the spreading branches crowded and one sided, ovate, oblong, acute, purplish. It is common on wet meadows and borders of rivers. Flowers in July and August. Prouiric Panic Grass, (panicum proliferum,) grows on brackish marshes and meadows, and is common along the coast. It sometimes appears on dry places. Cattle are fond of it. It differs from the preceding in having culms thickened, succu- lent, branched and bent, ascending from a procumbent base, and spikelets appressed, lance-oval, of a pale green color. Hair Sratkep Panic GRAss, (panicum capillare,) grows in sandy soils and cultivated fields every where. Its culm is upright, often branched at the base, and forming a tuft, sheaths flattened, very hairy, panicle pyramidal, hairy, compound and very loose, spikelets scattered on long pedicels, oblong, pointed. ‘Flowers in August and September. TaLL Smoota Panic Grass, (panicum virgatum.) Stems (cm GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. upright, three to five feet high, leaves very long, flat, panicle large, loose and compound, branches spreading when grown, and drooping, spikelets scattered, oval, pointed, glumes usually purplish. Grows pretty commonly in moist, sandy soils, and flowers in August. BROAD-LEAVED Panic Grass, (panicum latifolium.) This is a grass with a perennial, fibrous root, and stem from one to two feet high, and leaves broad, long, taper-pointed, smooth or slightly downy, branches of panicle spreading, spikelets long, obovate, downy. Flowers in June and July. It is common in moist thickets and woods. Of no value for cultivation. The HippEN-FLOWERED Panic Grass, (panicum. clandestinum, ) the YELLow Panic Grass, (panicum xanthophysum,) the Pouy- MORPHUS Panic GRASS, (panicum dichotomum,) the FEw-FLOw- ERED Panic Grass, (panicum depauperatum,) the Warry- FLOWERED PANIC GRASS, ( panicum verrucosum,) are sometimes found, the first, in low thickets and along the banks of rivers, not very common; the second, on dry and sandy soils, pine plains, rare ; flowers in June; the third, in dry and low grounds, not very common, flowers in June and July; the fourth, on dry, sandy hill-sides, more common than the preceding; the fifth, in sandy swamps, near the coast. None of these are valuable for cultivation, nor are they troublesome as some of the preceding species of panic are, on account of their places of growth. Barn Grass, or BARNyarD Grass, (panicum crus-galli,) is more common. Its spikes are alternate and in pairs, sheaths smooth, rachis bristly, stem from two to four feet high, stout, erect, or somewhat procumbent, leaves half an inch broad, panicle dense, pyramidal, glumes acute, awn variable in length and sometimes wanting, outer palea of the neutral flower, usually awned; one or two varieties have rough or bristly sheaths. It grows on moist, rich or manured soils and along the coast in ditches. Flowers in August, September and Oc- tober. : Some experiments have been made to cultivate this common species in the place of millet, to cut for green fodder. It is rel- ished by stock and is very succulent and nutritive. HuNGARIAN MILLET, Mona bE Honarin, (panicum germani- cum,) has been cultivated to some extent in this State, from NATURAL HISTORY. 79 seed received through the Patent Office. It is an annual forage plant introduced into France in 1815, where its cultivation has become considerably extended. It germinates readily, withstands the drought remarkably, remaining green even when other vegetation is parched up, and if its development is arrested by dry weather, the least rain will restore it to vigor. It has numerous succulent leaves which furnish an abundance | of green fodder, very much relished by all kinds of stock. It flourishes in somewhat light and dry soils, though it attains its greatest luxuriance in soils of medium consistency and well 'manured. It may be sown broadcast and cultivated precisely — like other varieties of millet. This millet is thought to contain a somewhat higher percentage of nutriment than the common millet, though I am not aware that it has been analyzed. A practical farmer of Worcester county says of it: “‘I have raised the ‘“‘ Moha de Hongrie,” on a small scale only. In my garden it has grown thick and fine. “As it isa leafy plant and remains green until its seeds mature, I think it may prove valuable for fodder, both green and dry. It grows and matures in about the same time as the common millet. “TJ have now one bushel of seed, grown on six square rods. This quantity will enable me to test it practically, another season.” : This plant is seen in Fig. 84, which gives a correct repre- sentation of it. The Bristty FoxtalL, (setaria verticillata,) is @ grass some- times, though rarely, found about farm houses. It has cylin- drical spikes two or three inches long, pale green, somewhat interrupted with whorled, short clusters, bristles single or in pairs, roughened or barbed downwards, short. Not cultivated. BotrLe GRAss, sometimes called Foxratn, (setaria glauca.) This isan annual with astem from one to three feet high, leaves broad, hairy at the base, sheaths smooth, ligule bearded, spike two to three inches long, dense, cylindrical, bristles six to eleven in a cluster, rough upwards, perfect flower wrinkled. The spike is of a tawny or dull orange yellow when old. Flow- ersin July. Itis common in cultivated grounds and barnyards. Introduced. The Green FoxtatL, sometimes also called Botrue Grass, 80 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. (setaria __viridis,) has a spike cylindri- == cal, more or less compound, green, “yy bristles few in a cluster, longer than the spikelets, flower perfect, striate lengthwise and dotted. It is common in cultivated grounds. The BrngaL Grass, sometimes called MILLET, (setaria italica,) also belongs to this genus. It has a compound spike, thick, nodding, six to nine inches long, yellowish or purplish, bristles two or three in a cluster. Introduced from Europe. Bur Grass, or Hepcesoc Grass, (cen- chrus tribuloides,) is somewhat common on sandy soils on the coast, or ne the salt water, where the spikes are whitish. It is regarded as a troublesome weed on account of its prickly burs. Flowers in August. Gama Grass, or SESAME Grass, (trip- sacum dactyloides,) though’ not often . found in this State is one of the largest and most remarkable grasses, though not one that would be considered of any value where better could be had. Its stalk is from four to seven, eet high, and the leaves look not very unlike those of Indian corn. Grows on moist soils near the coast. Flowers in August. FINGER-SPIKED Woop Grass, (andropogon furcatus.) Of this genus about sixty species are known to botanists. But few of these are indigenous to thisecountry. Its generic char- {tl Fig. 84. Hungarian Millet. acteristics are, a neuter or staminate lower flower, glumes and pale often wanting, upper flower perfect, glumes awnless, lower palea awned. Flowers in panicles and spikes. Specific description: Stems four feet high, leaves nearly smooth, spikes digitate or generally by threes and fours, lower NATURAL HISTORY. 81 flower awnless; the spikelets are roughish, downy, awn bent. Flowers in September. This grass is common on sterile soils, rocky banks and hill-sides. Not cultivated. PureLe Woop Grass, or Broom Grass, (andropogon sco- parius,) and the Inp1an Grass, or Woop Grass, (andropogon nutans,) grow on sterile and dry, barren soils, and sandy plains, and are common, though of no value for cultivation. They flower from July to September. The CHINESE SUGAR CANE, (sorghum saccharatum ? not yet finally classified.) Panicle open or spreading, spikelets two or three, the lateral ones sterile, the middle or terminal one fertile, glumes tough and hard, sometimes awnless, stamens three. Specific description: Stem from six to fifteen feet high, according to the soil on which it grows, erect, smooth, leaves linear, flexuous, gracefully curving down at the ends, resem- bling Indian corn in its early growth, and broomcorn, to which it is nearly allied, at maturity. Flowers in a panicle at the top, at first green, changing through the shades of violet to purple, when more advanced. See Fig. 85, taken from a plant somewhat over seven feet in height. This plant has lately been introduced and used both for forage and the manufacture of sugar and molasses or sirup. In some instances it has been used for making vinegar, brandy and other liquors. As it is a true grass, and is at present exciting considerable interest throughout the country, it is proper to notice it in this connection. The genus sorghum embraces over thirty species, most of which originated in Asia, where some of them have been culti- vated time out of mind. Specimens of the sorghum sacchara- tum were introduced into France by means of the seed, about six or eight years ago, where they have been cultivated with considerable success. So far as we know, this species is the best and most valuable for cultivation for the various purposes alluded to. Most of the seeds first used in this country were obtained from France, through the efficient agency of the Patent Office, at Washington, having been first cultivated in the spring of 1855. Any positive assertions with respect to the value of this plant, would, perhaps, be premature, but I have had very good i 82 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. opportunities of observation upon it, and have met many indi- viduals from different latitudes who have cultivated it with great success; and numerous experiments upon it are still in progress, which will determine its relative value and its modes of cultivation. It is, undoubtedly, very rich in saccha- rine matter in all latitudes within the geographical range of Indian corn. It has been said that the percentage of sugar decreases somewhat in the higher latitudes; but this does not seem to have been established as a fact, and the opposite con- clusion, will, very probably, be arrived at, even though the percentage of sugar found to be crystallizable should be greater in more tropical regions. The plant grown in Massachusetts the past year contained about twenty-three per cent. of sugar, while that grown in the District of Columbia contained but fourteen per cent. And this accords with what we know of Indian corn, since it is pretty well established that the corn grown in high latitudes is richer in saccharine matter than that grown at the South. The meal of northern corn is also better, and will bring at all times a considerably higher price in the market. Of the Chinese sugar cane about seven-eighths of the whole plant consist of juice, especially when grown in a southern latitude where the juice is somewhat more abundant, the cane being more succulent there; and we may readily credit the statement that vinegar has been made from this juice at the rate of fifteen hundred gallons to the acre. When cut for sugar the most favorable time is just after it has passed the blossom, or when the seed is ‘in the milk,” and if raised for this purpose the time of planting should be later than that of Indian corn. The leaves are stripped off and the stalk is crushed in any convenient mills or rollers, though more suitable mills will undoubtedly be constructed. Should it be found on more careful trial to be equal to what is reported of it, it will make an entire revolution in the sugar growing interests of the country, and thus become a plant of great national importance. It is said that the crop of sugar raised in Louisiana has gradually decreased from nearly five hundred thousand hogsheads in 1853, to less than one hundred thousand, in 1856, while the price of sugar and molasses—a greater amount of which is consumed in this, than in any other Chinese Sugar Cane. Fig. 85. , oh patie ite, ws NATURAL HISTORY. 85 country on the globe, in proportion to the population—is loudly calling the attention of farmers and planters to its production ; and the Chinese sugar cane is regarded by some as a substi- tute for the species of sugar cane most commonly cultivated there, the saccharum officinarum. But I propose to speak of it in this connection mainly as a forage plant, though it may prove perfectly practicable and profitable to cultivate it for the purpose of making sugar and molasses. Some years ago the practice of sowing Indian corn in drills for the purpose of cutting up green for fodder, was recommended by a progressive agriculturist, and though at first ridiculed, it soon came to be planted in small patches of a few rods square, by practical farmers here and there, till now it is regarded as almost an indispensable crop, not only to carry a stock of cattle through a severe summer drought, when our pastures are short and dry, but to cut and cure in large quan- tities for winter use. The weight and value of an acre of fodder is very great. Of late years there has been an inclina- tion to use sweet corn for this purpose, under the supposition that it possessed a larger quantity of saccharine matter in its stalks and leaves than the yellow varieties. When the use of sweet corn was first recommended, it was said that cattle were so much more fond of it than of yellow corn, that they would select its stalks if tied up in a bundle with the stalks of yellow corn. The same is now asserted of the Chinese sugar cane, and as it comes to me very well authenticated, I see no reason to doubt it. Of the economy of the culture of corn to feed out green in the manner alluded to, there can be no question, and no thrifty and prudent farmer thinks of neglecting it; for if we suffer from drought, as we are liable to every season, he is sure to regret it. Now if a substitute of superior value can be found, of as easy and simple cultivation, every farmer will avail him- self of it. Whether this substitute will be found in the Chinese sugar cane, remains, perhaps, to be proved; but so great has been its success thus far as to lead us to anticipate its adoption and extensive cultivation for that purpose. In one case authentically reported, nearly ten tons of fodder were raised on an acre, cut up and cured, and weighed three months after cutting. This is not at all surprising when we consider 86 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. that even larger yields of Indian corn have been and are fre- quently obtained, when raised, cut and cured in the same manner. When grown for fodder, two or three cuttings may be obtained from it, the first being made just before the time of blossoming, when the plant immediately starts up with a vigorous growth and renews its leaves, and sends up its flowering panicles with sreat rapidity. No less than five cuttings were obtained in Florida during the last year, but the seasons in more northern latitudes would not admit of so many. It is well known that Indian corn will shoot up the second time in the same manner, when once cut or eaten down while green. This plant grows best in a dry soil and hot sun, in both of which it can be ‘accommodated as far north as New England. It should be planted at or just after the time of Indian corn, and it will mature its fruit in about one hundred days from the seed. or the purposes of sugar making it is best cultivated on rather poor, warm soils, but for feeding out to fattening animals, it should be cultivated on richer ones. If raised for sugar it is better harvested somewhat late in the season, when the temperature ranges from 45° to 55°, when it is not so apt to suffer from the acetous fermentation to which it will be liable if cut earlier. But if raised mainly for the seed, it would be well to plant it somewhat earlier in the spring, in which case it might be cut earlier in the fall. Though the seed is now exceedingly dear on account of its scarcity and the extensive demand for it, yet itis estimated that it can be raised at the price of oats, fifty and sixty bushels to the acre having been obtained without any extraordinary care. The seed can be made into bread or into a beverage resembling chocolate, or fed to poultry and other farm stock. The Chinese sugar cane, if sown with a view to obtaining its seed, or to attaining its full and perfect development, should be cultivated in hills after the manner of planting Indian corn, and hoed and cultivated in the same manner; but if sown for fodder, it will be found to yield a more luxuriant crop in drills, as we cultivate Indian corn for that purpose. In the former case, one quart of seed will suffice for an acre as it tillers very much, each seed sending up several shoots or seed bearing stems; in the latter case, a larger quantity would be required. NATURAL HISTORY. 87 As a fodder plant it has been found not to increase the quantity of milk, milch cows fed upon it having fallen off very decidedly, while they rapidly increased in flesh, and the quality and richness of the milk was found to be improved. This may, therefore, be found to be an objection to its use with some, to whom the quantity is indispensable and the quality of no con- sequence ; but even such may find it desirable to cure and feed it to cows in winter. It was raised in Dorchester during the past year from seed raised there the year previous, which is conclusive proof that the seed can be ripened in this latitude so as to germinate, though for all practical purposes it is not material to us whether it will ripen here readily or not, if it is found to do so in the Middle States. As already intimated, the results of experiments have been successful, and these experiments will be carefully repeated the coming season. A farmer in the State of New York, whose communication appears in the volume of the Patent Office Report on Agricul-. ture, for 1855, says: “The proper time for planting, I should say, would be the same as that of early corn, as I find it quite hardy, and stalks of it cut down the end of October made fresh shoots after two rather heavy frosts, and still were good for feed. From twenty-five plants I obtained half a bushel of ripe seed. “The mode of cultivation I would recommend, would be to: sow after the ground is well manured and deeply ploughed, in drills four feet apart, the -plants two feet asunder in the drills, with not more than one plant in a place, as each sends up from four to six shoots. When the plants are well started, say a foot in height, turn over the earth on each side with a plough, after which keep them clear of weeds with the hoe. *¢ When well cultivated and in good soil, the plant attains from ten to fourteen feet in height and produces excellent fodder: from the root to the top. I believe a heavier weight of nutri-- tious feed for all kinds of cattle can be procured from it in @ given space of ground, than from any other plant, and I think it will prove of great benefit to every section of the country where it is introduced, not only as a green feed during the hot. months, but after being cut up and cured like the corn plant, 88 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. its stalks may be steamed during the winter, and given to horses, oxen or cows, which will commence eating at one end and not leave them till entirely consumed. The seeds, also, T have no doubt, will prove valuable as a feed for poultry, as I find they eat them with avidity. I look upon this plant as of great value as a forage crop,.and possibly, it may be profitably cultivated for sugar, as the juice contains nearly ten per cent. of saccharine matter as clear as crystal, and on a very small scale, beautiful clarified sugar was produced by my friend Dr. Ray.” Other statements are equally unqualified in the expression of confidence in the value of this plant. I subjoin the following practical suggestions on the cultivation of it, from a valuable little manual by Mr. Hyde, of Newton Centre, who has experi- mented with it. He says :— “Select a warm and dry soil, such as you would select for Indian corn. Prepare your ground precisely as you would for corn, either by spreading your manure, or putting in hills,—about the same distance between the hills, where the ground is rich. In planting, which should be done early, put into each hill six or eight seeds. Cover lightly with well pulverized soil,— say, three-fourths to one inch deep; pull out all but four or five at second hoeing. If planted in drills, seed enough should be used so that after hoeing there may be a stalk to every four or five inches ; from a pound and a half to two pounds of seed should be used. Cultivate and hoe as with corn; care should be taken that the ignorant do not hoe up the young plants, taking them for barn-grass, which they very much resemble. When the panicles appear they should be cut off of all that which is intended for sugar or sirup making. When the plant has just passed into bloom, the stalk may be ‘used for sirup, but will continue to grow better until the seed ds in the milk-stage, or little later. The stalks should be cut close to the ground, with a bill-hook ‘or some such tool, and stripped of their leaves, and the green, succulent top cut off, when they are ready for the mill; the Jeaves and top may be fed green to cattle, or dried. wo, NATURAL HISTORY. 89 _ The stalks should be passed through the mill twice or more, until most or all of the juice is expressed. The juice should not be allowed to stand long after being expressed, but boiled at once, if possible. A slow fire should be made under the kettle.—which should be of brass, or much bet- er of copper,—and the juice should not be allowed to boil until the green scum has all been taken off. Lime-water may be used to aid in clarifying and to neutralize the acid; the exact quantity is not yet determined, but to every five gallons of juice, say from one to two teaspoonfuls of powdered lime, or the same dissolved in water, and strained, before being put into the juice. When all the green scum has been removed, the fire may be increased, and the juice boiled down until nearly as thick as common molasses in hot weather, when, if intended for sirup, it should be removed from the fire, for this completes the pro- cess. If intended for sugar, it should be allowed to boil longer, and until it will ‘ string into threads,’ or present an appearance of being sufficiently boiled to grain, when it should be thrown off into troughs, or coolers, at once. I am not able to give exact information in regard to the time it should be boiled to crystallize readily. . Further experiments will determine. If made into sugar, it should be removed from the coolers to easks with holes bored in them, so that the molasses may drain off and leave the sugar dry, as it should be. These casks are generally placed on timbers, with a cement cistern underneath to hold the drippings, or molasses. After remaining in the ‘purgery’ until sufficiently drained, it comes out fit for sale, or use. Tf cultivated exclusively for fodder, it should be planted as early as the weather will allow, and quite as thick as stover- corn. When the panicles appear, or even before, it may be cut either for soiling or for drying, and the roots will at once throw up another crop. If it is desired, the juice may be fermented, like the juice of apples, being put into casks at the mill, and treated like cider. The begass, or waste, may be dried and used for fuel, or for making paper, or rotted down for manure. If the storms should blow down the seed-cane, no fears need be entertained, as it will remain weeks in that condition without 12 90 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. injury. I must here caution all persons who grow this cane against planting it in the vicinity of broomcorn, Dourah corn, or Guinea corn; for it readily mixes with these plants, and it would render the seed worthless for planting.” As already suggested, more accurate investigations afe re- quired to determine the relative importance of this plant for the various economical purposes alluded to. If it should be found, on chemical analysis, that the large percentage of saccharine matter in the plant consists of what is called glucose, a sub- stance of comparatively little value, incapable of crystalliza- tion to any extent, instead of a saccharine substance capable of easy granulation, it would very materially affect the value of the plant for: the purposes of sugar making, but could hardly affect its real value as a forage plant. This point will soon be determined. . If, as has been stated, it is found to be suitable for the manu- facture of alcoholic liquors, it should, perhaps, be regarded by the philanthropist as an important addition to our cultivated crops. It is well known that enormous quantities of our best erains are now withdrawn from their legitimate use as food for man, for the manufacture of these articles. Many distilleries use upwards of two thousand bushels of Indian corn or other grains, on an average, every day, and the consumption of grain for these purposes throughout the country is incredibly large. The Chinese sugar cane will probably be found to be an exhauster of land, requiring large quantities of the phosphates and silicates of the soil for the development of the hard coating of its stems. It has been estimated that nine tons of it to the acre would take from the soil fourteen hundred pounds of mineral substances. This would seem to indicate a dry, gray- elly, or a sandy soil, as best suited to supply it wants. InpIAN Grass, Woop Grass, (sorghum nutans,) is a grass sometimes found on our dry, sterile soils, with a panicle oblong, somewhat compressed, from six to ten inches long, stem from three to five feet high, leaves linear, grayish, sheaths smooth, spikelets light brown and glossy, drooping when mature, hairy at the base, awn twisted. It flowers in August. InpIAN MILLET, (sorghum vulgare,) isa cultivated species and has several well marked varieties, one of which is the Broom- ‘ 7 L ; OO NATURAL HISTORY. 91 corn. It is called Guinea corn in the West Indies, Dourah in Arabia, and Nagara in the north of China. It is sometimes used as a forage plant. As already intimated, more than thirty species supposed to belong to this genus are known to have been introduced into France, though it is very probable that a more accurate classifi- cation will distribute many of them among the other genera. The tall cereal which has long been cultivated in the south of Europe and in Barbary, under the general name of sorghum, resembles Indian corn in quality, and is often called small maize. Its stems contain a pretty large per cent. of saccharine matter, and it is useful to cut green as a forage plant. Indian millet, when raised on good soil and under favorable circumstances, is said to yield a larger- quantity of seed to the acre than any other cereal grass known, not excepting even Indian corn. Its nutritive quality is nearly equal to that of wheat. The common millet is the panicum miliaceum. Inp1An Corn, Maizn, (zea mais,) isa well known plant of American origin, a true grass, and one of the most beautiful and useful of this great family. Its value as.a forage plant has already been -alluded to in speaking of the Chinese sugar cane, and need not be dwelt upon here. Subject as we are, to the severest droughts, which parch up and essentially injure our pastures, this plant has been found to be of the utmost impor- tance to cut up green, affording an abundant and nutritious fodder, exceedingly succulent and greatly relished by cattle of all kinds, keeping them in good condition, while without this or some similar substitute our stock would inevitably suffer. The varieties cultivated for the purpose of fodder should be those with the largest and most succulent leaves. Some of the varieties of sweet corn are usually preferred, but on this point farther and more accurate investigations are greatly needed. It is estimated that on an average from six to eight tons of dry fodder may be procured from an acre sown in drills and properly cultivated, and that this would be equal to about four or five tons of good hay. ‘This is a reasonable estimate, as far larger crops are often obtained. The particular advantage of raising what are called forage plants, either to cut up green for soiling or to cure for winter use, over our ordinary mowing lands is, that they give on the 92 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. same extent of land a far larger amount of nutriment for ani- mals. They give this product immediately, or at least, in a very few months from the time of sowing, while permanent mowing lands, or the perennial grasses, require a great length of time to arrive at perfection, varying from one to four or five years. The amount of fertilizing materials drawn from the air and stored away in the soil by means of the roots, and capable of benefiting the crops of the succeeding year is very consider- able, while, in the natural grasses, it remains under the turf and does not come into use till the sward is broken and sub- mitted to culture. We may choose for forage culture plants which start up early in spring and are capable of being used even before the natural grasses have attained a size to make them particularly valuable for grazing. Besides, the mass of manure which may be made from the product of an acre of land by the use of forage plants, owing to the increased yield, over and above what would be obtained from the same acre in the natural grasses, is an item too rarely taken into the account. Moreover the plants usually called forage plants, like the clovers, lucerne and green corn fodder, may have some adyan- tage over root culture, their expense being generally less, their product, dried, more easily stored, and kept with less danger of ‘injury and decay, and the mode of feeding out to animals attended with less trouble. Rep Cuover, (¢rifolium pratense.) We have given our whole attention, in the preceding pages, to what are strictly and properly called the natural grasses. We now come to consider, very briefly, the artificial. Curious as it may appear, the arti- ficial grasses were cultivated first in point of time, in England, the red clover having been introduced and grown there about the year 1633; sainfoin, 1651; yellow clover in 1659, and white clover about the year 1700; while not one of the natural grasses was cultivated till nearly a century later, with the excep- tion of perennial rye grass, first cultivated in 1677. About'the year 1759 the custom of sowing the chaff and seed dropped from the hay stack, along with the artificial grasses and rye grass began, and soon after—between 1761 and 1764—the cul- tivation of Timothy and orchard grass was introduced from America. The culture of the bent grasses, the sheep’s fescue a "SS NATURAL HISTORY. 93 and the crested dog’s tail, began soon after. In 1766, the London Society for the Encouragement of Arts offered pre- miums for the collection of the seeds of some of the grasses then found growing wild, such as the meadow foxtail, the meadow fescue, the sweet scented vernal grass, &c., and in 1769 the same society offered additional rewards for farther investigations and experiments on the culture and comparative value of the natural grasses. But little was done, however, till the experiments undertaken by the Duke of Bedford, in 1824. In this country the extensive and practical cultivation of the natural grasses seems to have been commenced at an earlier date than in England, for Jared Eliot, writing about the year 1750, speaks of the culture of Timothy as having been adopted sometime previously. Indeed, the necessities of our rigorous climate compelled attention to this branch of husbandry soon after the establishment of the colony, in 1620. The climate of England, on the other hand, admitted a greater degree of reli- ance on the wild luxuriance of nature, and this mode of man- agement was brought over by the first settlers and attempted for some years, the few cattle they had being kept on poor and miserable swale hay, or often upon the hay obtained from the salt marshes. The death of their cattle from starvation and exposure was of very common occurrence, and not unfrequently the farmer lost his entire herd. The treatment of animals now, as they were treated during the whole of the first century, of the colony, would make the owner liable to prosecution for cruelty. This treatment was, in part, owing to the poverty of the settlers, but more, probably, to the ideas and practices in which they had been early trained in a different climate. For- tunately for the poor dumb beast a more enlightened policy now governs the mass of men, and this policy has led to greater care and attention to the cultivation of the grasses. But in this country, the culture of the natural grasses takes the precedence in point of time from the causes already indi- cated, and the minds of men are so influenced by the routine of ordinary practice, that the introduction of clover in the early part of the last century met with great uae which is now nearly, if not quite extinct. Red clover, though not properly included in the family of 94 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. grasses, is now not only extensively cultivated, but is found to be one of the most valuable and economical forage plants. It belongs to the pulse family, or leguminose, which includes the larger portion of forage plants called artificial grasses, in dis- tinction from the graminex, the true, and often called the natural grasses. The generic name, trefoil, or trifolium, is derived from the Latin tres, three, and folium, a leaf; and the genus can generally be very readily distinguished by the num- ber and arrangement of its leaves in three leaflets, and flowers in dense, oblong or globular heads. Specific description: ‘Stems ascending, somewhat hairy, leaf- lets oval or obovate, often notched at the end and marked on the upper side with a pale spot, heads ovate and set directly upon the stalk instead of upon branches. This species is regarded as by far the most important of the whole genus. It has sported into a number of varicties, one of which is biennial, another perennial, the latter by long cultivation becoming biennial, while the former,—as is true of most biennial and many annual plants,—assumes, to some extent, the character of a perennial and can be made to last three or four years or even more, by simply preventing it from running to seed. This plant is seen in Fig. 86, its leaf is shown in Fig. 87, and its fruit magnified in Fig. 88. The introduction of clover into England, it is often said, produced an entire revolution in her agriculture, and indeed, when we consider how important a part it plays in our own system of farming, we can with difficulty imagine how our ancestors ever got on at allin farming without it. Be thisas it may, it is certain that it led to many of the most important improvements in the rotation of crops. Clover is very properly regarded as a fertilizer of the soil. The action of its long and powerful tap roots is not only mechanical,—loosening the soil and admitting the air,—but also chemical, serving to fix the gases important to enrich the earth, and when these roots decay they add largely to that black mass of matter we call the soil. It serves, also, by its luxuriant foliage, to destroy annual weeds which would spring up on newly seeded land, especially after imperfect cultivation. But one of the most valuable uses of it, and one too often overlooked, is to shade the surface and thereby increase its fertility. NATURAL HISTORY. 95 Fig. 86. Red Clover. : Fig. 87. Clover is emphatically a lime plant, and the soils best adapted » to it are tenacious or-stiff loams. The careful analysis of Prof. Way found no less than 35.89 per cent. of lime in the inorganic constituents of red clover, and that of Boussingault 82.80 per cent., while intelligent practice has arrived so nearly at the same conclusion, that the term “clover soils” is now almost universally used to indicate a tenacious loam, containing more or less of lime in its composition. Another great advantage in favor of the cultivation of clover, consists in its rapid growth. But a few months elapse from the sowing of the seed before it yields, ordinarily, an abundant and nutritious crop, relished by cattle of all kinds. Clover seed should always be sown in the spring of the year, in the climate of New England. It is often sown upon the late snows of March or April and soon finds its way down to the soil, where, aided by the moisture of early spring it quickly germi- nates and rapidly shoots up its leaf stalks. An accurate and valuable analysis of this plant, both in its green and dry state, will be found in a tabular form on a sub- sequent page, while a more extended notice of its culture and 96 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. the mode of curing it, with the results of practical experience as to its value, will also be given in their proper place. Wuite Ciover, Durca CLover, HonrysucKkun, (trifolium repens,) is equally common with the red, and often forms a very considerable portion of the sward or turf of pastures and fields of a tenacious and moist soil. Specific description: Stems spreading, slender and creeping, leaves inversely heart-shaped, flower heads small, white, pods four seeded, root perennial. Flowers from May to September. Fig. 89. A magnified flower is seen Fig. 90. White clover is widely diffused over this country and all the countries of Hurope. It is indigenous probably both to England and America. When first cultivated from seed collected from wild plants, at the beginning of the last century, it was recorded of a farmer that he had ‘sowed the wild white clover which holds the ground and decays not.’ Its chief value is as a pas- ture grass, and it is as valuable for that purpose as the red clover is for hay or for soiling, though there are some who place a low estimate upon it. It casily accommodates itself to a great variety of soils, but grows most luxuriantly in moist grounds and moist or wet seasons. Indeed, it depends so much upon a general distribution of rains through the season, that when they are sufficiently abundant it comes in profusely even where it was not observed in other years, and hence such sea- sons pass under the term of “clover years.” It is not appar- ently so much relished by stock as from its sweetness we should be led to expect, but it is, on the whole, to be cherished for permanent pastures, and improved, as it undoubtedly may be, by a proper selection and culture of varieties. Tor an accurate analysis of this plant the reader is referred to a subsequent page. Lucerne, ALFALFA, (medicago sativa, Fig. 91.) This genus of leguminous plants has been known and cultivated from time immemorial. This particular species, lucerne, was brought from Media to Greece in the time of Darius, about five hundred years before Christ, and its cultivation afterwards extended among the Romans, and through them to the south of France, where it has ever since continued to be a favorite forage plant. It does not endure a climate as severe as red clover, requiring ereater heat and sunlight; but in a latitude equally suited to , NATURAL HISTORY. 97 both plants it would be somewhat difficult to say which should have the preference. In some respects it is decidedly superior, as in being perennial, and consequently remaining long in the soil. I have seen fine specimens of it in South Boston, where the seed was sown in 1824, still maintaining its vigorous hold => Fig. 89. White Clover. Fig. 90. of the soil and growing with remarkable luxuriance. The crop of lucerne is as abundant as red clover, and is equally well relished by cattle, both green and dry. Its yield of green fodder continues later in the season than that of red clover. : 4) Lucerne sends down its tap oy wa, _ roots in mellow soils, to enor- ma mous depths, having been found Lp oY Bed in sandy soils thirteen feet in %. Q JVVW Se ; | length. The leaflets are in Sante threes, obovate, oblong, toothed, SiG the flowers pale blue, violet, or s oe, purple, shaped as in Fig. 92, the 2 A fruit in downy pods, having two aa PS or three twirls, as in Fig. 98. a an Lucerne is cultivated in Chili and grows wild in the utmost luxuriance in the pampas of Buenos Ayres, where it is called | v alfalfa, which is simply the com- ada | ie mon lucerne, slightly modified phe by climate, and may be regarded = as a variety. The cultivation of lucerne is somewhat more difficult than 13 98 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. that of clover for the first year, requiring a soil thoroughly mellowed and prepared by clean and careful tillage; and the want of proper attention to this point has led to partial fail- ures in the attempts to raise it in this country. It suffers and languishes in compact clay soils, and does not flourish in light soils lying over an impermeable subsoil, which prevents the water from running off. It will never succeed well on thin soils. But in a permeable subsoil, consisting of loam, or sand or gravel, its roots can penetrate to great depths, and being nearly destitute of lateral shoots, provided with numerous fibrous rootlets, or radical off-shoots, imbibe their moisture and nutri- ment in layers of soil far below the average of other plants. In this respect it differs materially from clover. For lucerne, a suitable subsoil is of the utmost consequence. For the short lived red clover, a suitable surface soil is more important; a want of care and deep tillage, especially a neglect to break through and loosen up the hard-pan wherever it exists, will inevitably lead to failure with lucerne. But when the soil is suitable, it will produce good and very profitable crops for from five to ten or twelve years, and, of course, it does not belong in the system of short rotations. But notwithstanding the large quantity of succulent and nutritious forage it produces, its effect is to ameliorate and improve the soil rather than to exhaust it. This apparent anomaly is explained by the fact that all leguminous, broad leaved plants derive a large proportion of their nutritive mate- rials from the atmosphere, and that a vast quantity of roots are left to decay in the soil when it is at last broken up, varying, of course, with the length of time the plant continues in the soil, while the luxuriant foliage serves to shade the soil and thus to increase its fertility. Much of this rich foliage is scattered and left to decay, as is the case with allsimilar plants at the time of harvesting, and the growth of the aftermath is also usually very considerable. The fact that it actually increases the fertility of the soil for other plants, has often been proved and may be regarded as fully established. A soil which would bear only a medium crop of wheat at first, produced a greatly increased quantity after being laid down to lucerne a few years till its roots had enriched the soil. Lucerne should not follow immediately after having been q § NATURAL HISTORY. 99 grown a few years on the same soil, and then broken up, but after the land on which it has been grown has been cultivated with some other crop or laid down to the natural grasses a length of time equal to that during which it had previously remained in lucerne, it can safely be sown again with it. The seed of lucerne, when fresh and good, is yellow, glossy and heavy. If the seeds are white, it is an indication that they are not ripe. If they are brown, we may infer that they have been subjected to too strong a heat to separate them from their husks. In either of these cases, it is not safe to purchase or torely upon them. The same may be said of clover, and it is desirable to try them by a simple method which will be indi- cated hereafter in speaking of the selection of seed. As the seeds of lucerne are somewhat larger than clover seed and the plant tillers less, it is necessary to sow a larger quantity per acre. It may be sown in the spring along with grain crops, as clover often is, and not avery large crop should be expected the first year. Lucerne should be cut as soon as it begins to flower, or even earlier. Ifcut much earlier it is apt to be too watery and less nutritious and cures with greater difficulty; if later, it becomes coarse and hard with woody fibre, and is less relished by cattle. It may be cut and fed green and is an exceedingly, valuable plant for soiling cattle, or it may be cut and cured and used like clover hay; but in either case, it must be cut before blossoming. It is thought by many, that lucerne will not endure the climate of New England, but I do not think it satisfactorily proved, and I have been somewhat minute in speaking of it, in the hope of inducing more careful experiments on a scale and under circumstances sufficient to determine its relative value for us. Jam the more anxious on this point from the fact that Iam convinced, after much study and observation of our climate, that we should direct our labors in farming more with reference to the frequent droughts of summer to which we are liable every year, and from which there is no immediate and practicable escape except in thorough drainage and deep tillage, which most farmers are unwilling to undertake at pres- ent. ‘‘ When properly managed, the number of cattle which can be kept in good condition on an acre of lucerne, during 100 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. the whole season, exceeds belief. It is no sooner mown than it pushes out fresh shoots ; and wonderful as the growth of clover sometimes is, in a field that has been lately mown, that of lucerne is far more rapid. Lucerne will last for many years, shooting its roots—tough and fibrous almost as those of liquorice —downwards for nourishment, till they are altogether out of the reach of drought. In the dryest and most sultry weather, when every blade of grass droops for want of moisture, lucerne holds up its stem, fresh and green, as in the genial spring.” Tam convinced, also, that the failures of attempts to culti- vate lucerne with us may be ascribed, in nearly every instance, to an improper selection of soils, and am inclined to think that amore accurate knowledge of the plant anda more careful observation of its habits of growth would lead to its more gen- eral adoption as an economical forage plant. I have procured fine specimens of lucerne in various parts of this State, where it is very successfully cultivated, but on too lim- ited a scale to determine its coer auye value as a farm crop. SAINFOIN, (hedysarum ono- px brychis,) differs from lucerne in many important particu- lars. It is a leguminous plant with many stems from two to three feet long, strag- gling, tapering, smooth, leaves in. pairs of pointed, oblong leaflets, slightly hairy on the under side, flower stalks high- er than the leaves, ending in a spike of crimson or varie- gated flowers, succeeded by flat, hard pods, toothed on the edges and prickly on the sides, root perennial, and hard and woody. Flowers in July. Fig. 94. The flower is shown in Fig. 95, and the fruit in Fig. 96. Experiments have been made in introducing and cultivating it in this State, but without success. It requires a calcareous soil. Fig. 94. “Sainfoin. NATURAL HISTORY. 101 In the south of France, where it flourishes best, it is considered an indispensable forage plant, improving the quality and in- creasing the quantity of milk when fed to milch cows, to which it may be given without producing the “ hoove,” to which they are subjected when allowed to feed freely on green clover and lucerne. Its stalks do not become ligneous if allowed to stand till blossoming, as those of lucerne do. The amount of fodder obtained from it is less than that from clover or lucerne, but its quality, where it can be successfully grown, is better. Its fruit or seed is said to be far more nutritious than oats. They are eagerly sought by fowls, and cause them to lay. Sainfoin, when green and young, will not endure a severe winter, but after the second or third year will endure a con- siderable degree of cold. It will succeed in very dry soils, sands and gravels. It is grown with great success in some of the southern counties of England. Its seeds have been gen- erally distributed over the country through the agency of the Patent Office, but, so far as I know, they have been followed by no marked success in the way of crops in New England. The arrow grasses form a limited family consisting of only three species found in New England. They are arranged in the following table :— Taste II. List of Arrow Grasses. (Juncaginee.) Common Name. Systematic Name. Pas ich i‘ Place of growth. Marsh Arrow Grass. . -| Triglochin palustre, . : August, . | Marshes, both salt and sn. Sea-side Arrow Grass, . . | Triglochin maritimum, -| July, Aug. .| Salt marshes. Tall Arrow Grass, . : Triglochin elatum, é . | June, July, . | Swampsin Bridgewater The second of these, the sea arrow grass, is common in our salt marshes, having rush-like leaves of a sweetish taste, relished by cattle, and forming a very good fodder when well cured. Many of the rushes or grass-like plants so common along the borders of our ponds, and called grasses in popular language, are readily eaten in the spring while green and full of juice. They are arranged in the following table :— 102 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. TaBLe III. List of Grass-like Rushes. (Juncacee. ) Common Name. Systematic Name. sree Place of growth. Common Wood Rush, . Luzula campestris, April, May, .| Fields and dry woods, Broad-leaved Hairy, Wood ~ Rush, P 5 . | Luzula pilosa, May, Open woods, river banks Small-flowered Wood Rush, . | Luzula parviflora, July, . | Mountains, West. Mass. Soft Rush, Juncus effusus, June, . | Swampy grounds: com- Slender Rush, . | Juncus filiformis, . | July, Weewanks and shores. Baltic Rush, . . | Juncus balticus, . .| duly, Sandy shores. Smaller Round-headed Rush, | Juncus nodosus, . July, Borders of rivers and Many-headed Rush, Juncus polycephalus, . .| July, Wet. ues: Sharp-fruited Rush, Juncus acuminatus, August, . | Boggy swamps. Brownish-fruited Rush, . | Juncus articulatus, - — | Wet places. Conrad’s Rush, Juncus Conradi, . July, Aug. Borders of ponds in sandy soil. Toad Rush, . . | Juncus bufonius, June, Aug. .| Lowgrounds, roadsides Slender Rush, Juncus tenuis, June, Aug. . | Low grounds, fields. Greene’s Rush, Juncus Greenei, . ; .| duly, Sandy borders of salt marshes. Black Grass, . Juncus bulbosus, August, Borders of salt marshes Grass-leayed Rush, Juncus marginatus, . . | July, Moist, sandy swamps. Long-fruited Rush, Juneus Stygius, . . i - - | Peat swamps, Three-leayed Rush, Juncus trifidus, July, . . ; Mountain summits. The most prominent and valuable of these plants is the Buack GRass, (juncus bulbosus, var. gerardi,) an inhabitant of salt marshes. This plant has a simple, slender stem, some- what flattened, from one to two feet high. It is considered the best product of the salt marshes and grows most luxuriantly, along their borders which are only occasionally overflowed by the tides, often working its way to the uplands where the seed is scattered, in large quantities, in curing. It should be cut early, and when well cured is thought to be nearly equal in value to good English hay. Though not of itself equal in value, weight for weight, to “ goose grass,” (poa maritima, p. 49, Fig. 80,) yet the product per acre is so much larger as to make it a more desirable crop. Most of the salt marsh plants have already been described in the natural history of the true grasses. The “‘ Goose Grass,” one of the most valuable of them, was mentioned under its synonym, Sea Spear Grass, Fig. 30, p. 49, NATURAL HISTORY. 103 the name “goose grass,’ by which it is more generally known along the shores of Essex county and Cape Cod, having been inadvertently omitted. It is generally considered one of the best products of the salt marsh when it grows in mixture with other species of plants, as the black grass, for instance, and deserves a more extended notice. It is very well known that large tracts of salt marsh are nearly barren. Sometimes close cutting in the early morning, while the dew is on the grass and when it cuts comparatively easy, kills it out, and from that cause the marsh becomes bar- ren. More often, however, excess of water, either upon the surface or in the soil, from the proximity of ponds which have no outlet, causes barrenness. On all such tracts goose grass springs up and dots the whole surface with circular patches of green, which in shape are very like ringworms on the human skin. This grass is seldom found alone except on these barren tracts, and upon them it grows so short and thin as seldom to be worth cutting. One will therefore never see any goose grass hay except mixed with other kinds, and’ generally with black grass. When these tracts begin to improve, either from draining or from any other cause, other grasses make their appearance, and the goose grass grows much more vigorous and becomes valuable. This will continue to be the case for several years, until the roots of the other grasses have taken entire possession of the soil, when the goose grass disappears almost entirely and bides its time, ready to appear again whenever from any cause its intrusive competitors cease to exist. The hay made from the mixture of goose and pe grasses —among which black grass generally predominates—is a most valuable fodder. The goose grass is so weighty that it takes but a small quantity, comparatively, for a ton, and cattle eat it with almost as much avidity as oats or any other grain. In fact, no hay is more valuable than black grass with a large admixture of goose grass, when properly cured. The curing process requires care and time, for goose grass is as full of sap as possible, and requires a much longer expos- ure than black grass, while a very little wet when it is partially cured, materially injures the black grass. We may judge of the properties of goose grass from the 104 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. fact, that in several instances within my own knowledge, cattle have died of hoove from eating it early in the spring. It resembles in the shape of its leaves, and somewhat in its cluster-like growth, that species of garlic which used formerly to be grown in kitchen gardens called cives, or more properly chives. Its seed stalks and seeds are almost precisely like the seed stalks and seeds of the common plantain. It grows both on high and low marshes, but is very seldom worth cutting on those tracts where it grows by itself and without the admixture of other grasses. It is proper to state in this connection that experiments have been made to introduce this valuable grass into our fresh wet meadows, and with good success. Most of the superior salt marsh grasses are greatly improved by ditching, while the poorer and comparatively worthless plants found there very soon die out after this operation and give place to more valuable species. It may be safely asserted that, on an average, the value of the marsh is nearly doubled by it, while the vegetable, peaty matter taken from it is sufficient, if properly used, to pay a considerable portion of the outlay. There is also a small family of plants called the yellow eyed erasses, or the star grasses, consisting of only two species, the first of which is the YeLLow Eyep Grass, (xyris bulbosa,) flowering in July, August and September, growing on sandy and peaty soils, and bogs near the coast; and the second, the Common YELLow Eyep Grass, (xyris caroliniana,) flowering in August, on sandy swamps. These are beautiful grasses, of no special agricultural value. There is still another great family of plants which, though of “no agricultural value in point of nutritive properties as com- pared with the true grasses, is, nevertheless, extensively used in New England for forage purposes, and consequently deserves a passing mention. I refer to the sedges, and plants constituting the coarse and innutritious herbage properly included in the term, CAREX, a large and prominent genus of grass-like plants, consisting in all of about four hundred and fifty species known to botanists, extensively diffused over all the damp parts of the globe, and in popular language called grasses. A few species | | . NATURAL HISTORY. 105 of carex grow on sandy hills and along the sea shore, but most inhabit marshes, wet meadows, swamps, and the low, wet banks of streams and ditches, and moist woods. Somewhat over a hundred species are found in New England. None of them are of any real agricultural value, though they constitute mainly what we term “ meadow hay,” or more properly swale hay, in eastern Massachusetts. They are nearly destitute of mealy and saccharine principles in which many of the true grasses abound, and are eaten by cattle only when compelled by hunger, in the want of better grasses. It not unfrequently happens, however, that there is an admixture of the higher grasses among the carices or sedges,.such as the fowl meadow, the bastard fowl meadow, the white top or some of the other species possessing higher nutritive qualities, and then, of course, the hay made from the swale is proportionably improved, and may thus become of considerable value for winter fodder. The Sedges are arranged in the following table :— Taste IV. List of Carices or Sedges, ( Cyperacea.) Common Name. Systematic Name: inne: Place of growth. Diandrus Sedge, Cyperus diandrus, Aug., Sept., | Wet grounds. Nuttall’s Sedge, Cyperus Nuttallii, z , | August, Salt marshes. Bristle-spiked Galingale, Cyperus strigosus, July to Sept., | Swamps and low lands. Gray’s Galingale, . Cyperus Grayii, _ . | August, Barren, sandy soils. Toothed Galingale, Cyperus dentatus, August, Sandy swamps. Dwarf Odorous Galingale, Cyperus inflexus, : ,| July to Sept., Beehs oe rivers and Schweinitz’s Galingale, . Cyperus Schweinitzii, . . | August, Shores of lakes. Common S§pike-rush, . | Eleocharis palustris, August, Swamps and low lands. Olive-fruited Spike-rush, Eleocharis olivacea, August, . | Wet, sandy places. Braked Spike-rush, - | Eleocharis rostellata, . = - | Marshes. Intermediate Spike-rush, Eleocharis intermedia, . | August, Wet places. Obtuse-headed Spike-rush, . | Eleocharis obtusa, June. July, | Bogs, borders of mud- dy ponds and rivers. Large-tubercled Spike-rush, | Eleocharis tuberculosa, August, Sandy swamps. Hair Club-rush, . | Eleocharis acicularis, . .| June, July, | Muddy borders of ponds Horsetail Rush, . | Eleocharis equisetoides, - - | Shallow water. Robbins’s Club-rush, . | Eleocharis Robbinsii, . . | July, - | Ponds and ditches. Slender Club-rush, . | Eleocharis tenuis, -| June, July, | Common in wet places. Black-fruited Club-rush, __. | Eleocharis Melanocarpa, ~ - | Wet sand. Dwarf Spike-rush, Eleocharis pygmza, . | August, Salt marshes. 14 / = 106 Tasie 1V.—Continued. GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. Common Name. Scaly-stalked Club-rush, Flat-leaved Club-rush, . Floating Club-rush, © . Chair-bottom Rush, Olney’s Rush, Torrey’s Rush, Bulrush, Weak-stemmed Rush, . 8ea Bulrush, a , ; River Rush, . Wood Rush, . Cluster-head Rush, Porter’s Rush, Wool Grass, . Cotton Grass, Harestail, Rusty Cotton Grass, Broad-leayed Cotton Grass, . Narrow-leaved Cotton Grass, Tall Fimbristylis, . Tufted Fimbristylis, Hair-like Fimbristylis, . Umbrella Grass, Bald Rush, Horned Rush, Dwarf Hemicarpha, White Beak-rush, . Small Beak-rush, . Brown Beak-rush, Tall, Slender Beak-rush, Common Beak-rush, Round-head Beak-rush, Smooth Twig-rush, Sessile-spiked Nut-rush, Loose-flowered Nut-rush, Three-clustered Nut-rush, or Whip-grass, ; Few-flowered Nut-rush, Systematic Name. Scirpus ceespitosus, Scirpus planifolius, Scirpus subterminalis, Scirpus pungens, ' 5 Scirpus Olneyi, Scirpus Torreyi, . Scirpus lacustris, . Scirpus debilis, Scirpus maritimus, Scirpus fluviatilis, Scirpus sylvaticus, Scirpus polyphyllus, Scirpus lineatus, . Scirpus Eriophorum, Eriophorum Alpinum, Eriophorum yaginatum, Eriophorum Virginicum, Eriophorum polystachyon, . Eriophorum gracile, Fimbristylis spadicea, . Fimbristylis autumalis, Fimbristylis capillaris, Fuirena vquenioeas r Psilocarya scirpoides, . Ceratoschoenus macrostachya Hemicarpha subsquarrosa, . Rhynchospora alba, Rhynchospora capillacea, Rhynchospora fusca, Rhynchospora gracilenta, Rhynchospora glomerata, -,| Rhynchospora cephalantha, Cladium mariscoidés, . Scleria reticularis, Scleria laxa, Scleria triglomerata, Scleria pauciflora, — Time of Flowering. July, June, August, July, Aug. July, July, Aug. July. August, August, July, Aug. July, July, July, July to Sept. May, June, June, July, Aug. June, July, June to Aug. July to Sept. Aug. to Oct. Aug., Sept. August, July, July, July, Aug. July, July, July, Aug. August, July, August, August, July, . | July, Place of growth. Wet mountains. Woods, and in bogs. Sluggish streams: rare. Borders of salt marshes and fresh ponds. Salt marshes. Borders of ponds. Borders of muddy rivers and ponds. Borders of sandy rivers and lakes. Salt marshes and salt springs. Borders of lakes and large streams. Wet meadows. Swamps, shady borders of ponds. Bogs in western Mass. Wet meadows, swamps. Peat swamps. Mossy swamps and high mountains. Common in swamps. Boggy meadows. Wet mossy swamps. Salt marshes: rare. Low grounds. Common on sandy fields. Sandy, wet places. Inundated swamps. Borders of ponds: rare. Sandy borders of rivers and lakes. Mossy swamps, mon. Swamps and marshes. com- Low wet grounds: rare. Low grounds. Boggy grounds. Sandy swamps. Borders of ponds, bog meadows. Sandy swamps and bor- ders of ponds. Sandy swamps. Swamps and moist thickets. Swamps and hills. NATURAL HISTORY. 107 Tasxie 1V.—Continued. Common Name. Systematic Name. iene Place of growth. ’ Dwarf Verticillate Nut-rush, | Scleria verticillata, - . | June, Swamps. Slender Sedge, Carex exilis, June, July, . | Marshes in Danvers. Few-flowered Sedge, Carex pauciflora, . : é = — | Peat swamps. Bristle-stalked Sedge, Carex polytrichoides, . May, Low grounds & woods. Willdenow’s Sedge, Carex Willdenovii, May, Moist, shady places. Back’s Sedge, Carex Backii, - — | Mount Tom and rocky hills. Two-seeded Sedge, Carex disperma, . June, Mossy swamps and mountains. Long-rooted Sedge, Carex cherelorhiga, May, Mossy swamps. Oval-headed Sedge, Carex cephalophora, May, Hill-sides and fields Muhlenberg’s Sedge, Carex Muhlenbergii, April, Rocky hill-sides and mountains. Dry-spiked Sedge, . Carex siccata, = - | Sandy plains. Rose Sedge, Carex rosea, . May, Moist woods and low grounds. Retroflexed Sedge, Carex retroflexa, . May, Open woods and moist meadows. Bur-reed Sedge, Carex sparganioides, May, Low swampy grounds. Awl-fruited Sedge, Carex stipata, April, Swamps, low grounds. Fox Sedge, Carex yulpinoidea, May, Low grounds: common Bristly-spiked Sedge, Carex setacea, June, Wet meadows. Bromus-like Sedge, Carex bromoides, . May, Wet swamps. Foxtail Sedge, Carex alopecoidea, - - | Woods. Sartwell’s Sedge, Carex Sartwellii, . - - ~ - Lesser-panicled Sedge, - Carex teretiuscula, June, Swamps: common. Large-panicled Sedge, Carex decomposita, - - | Swamps. Three-seeded Sedge, Carex trisperma, . June, Peat swamps, wet mountain woods. Dewey’s Sedge, Carex Deweyana, . June, Moist woods. White Carex, Carex canescens, . May, Wet meadows. Little Prickly Sedge, Carex stellulata, . May, Wet meadows. Slender Cluster-spiked Sedge, | Carex tenuiflora, . June, Mossy swamps. Broom-like Sedge, . Carex scoparia, = - | Wet meadows and swamps. Straw-colored Sedge, Carex straminea, . May, June, Borders of woods and fields. Long-stalked Sedge, Carex pedunculata, April, Rocky hills and dry woods. Square-headed Sedge, Carex squarrosa, . May, Low meadows, thickets Buxbaum’s Sedge, Carex Buxbaumii, May, Mossy swamps. Three-headed pubescent Sedge] Carex triceps, May, Woods and meadows. Green-spiked pubescent Sedge; Carex virescens, - May, Woods and hill-sides. Slender Nodding Sedge, Carex gracillima, . June, Moist grounds. Showy Sedge, Carex formosa, May, Wet meadows. Dayis’s Sedge, Carex Dayisii, May, Swamps, river banks. Rigid Sedge, . Carex rigida, July, | Mountain summits. _ 108 Tasie 1V.—Continued. GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. Common Name. Large Bog Sedge, . Smaller Bog Sedge, Water Sedge, Golden-fruited Sedge, Fringed Sedge, Few-fruited Sedge, Inflated Sedge, Cylindrical-spiked Sedge, Bladder-fruited Sedge, . Awl-fruited Sedge, Tall Yellow Sedge, Swollen-fruited Sedge, . Hop Sedge, Rough-fruited Sedge, Schweitnitz’s Sedge, Late-fruited Sedge, Long-pointed Sedge, Porcupine Sedge, . Cyperus-like Sedge, Long-beaked Sedge, Hairy-fruited Sedge, Awned Sedge, Umbel-spiked Sedge, Pennsylvanian Sedge, . New England Sedge, Slender-leaved Sedge, Woolly-fruited Sedge, Short Woolly-spiked Sedge, . Pubescent Sedge, . Mud Sedge, Livid Sedge, . Large Yellow Carex, (der’s Sedge, Pale Pubescent Sedge, . Torrey's Sedge, Striated Sedge, Granular-spiked Sedge, Loose-flowered Sedge, Systematic Name. Carex augustata, . Carex czespitosa, . Carex aquatilis, Carex aurea, Carex crinita, : . Carex oligosperma, Carex bullata, Carex cylindrica, . Carex utriculata, . Carex subulata, Carex folliculata, . Carex intumescens, Carex lupulina, Carex scabrata, Carex Schweinitzii, . Carex retrorsa, Carex tentaculata, Carex hystricina, . Carex Pseudo-Cyperus, Carex longirostris, Carex trichocarpa, Carex aristata, Carex umbellata, . Carex Pennsylvanica, . Carex Noye-Angliz, Carex filiformis, Carex lanuginosa, Carex vestita, Carex pubescens, . Carex limosa, Carex livida, Carex flava, . Carex (deri, Carex pallescens, ., Carex Torreyi, Carex striata, Carex granularis, Carex laxiflora, Time of Flowering. Place of growth. May, Swamps; common. May, Swamps and banks of streams. June, July, .| Borders of lakes and rivers. May, June, . | Borders of swamps and _ brooks. May, June, . | Swamps, river banks. June, Mountains, borders of swamps. May, Swamps: not common. = - | Swamps: commen. May, Wet swamps. May, Cedar swamps. June, Swamps, peat bogs. June, Wet grounds and open woods. June, Swamps and borders of ponds. May, Borders of brooks. May, Swamps. May, Borders of ponds and streams. May, Swamps. June, Swamps: common. June, Swamps and sluggish streams. June, Shady, rocky places. June, Marshes and lakes. - - | Lake shores. May, Rocky hill-sides. April, Dry woodsand hill-sides June, Woody hills and moun- tains. May, Peat swamps. May, Swamps and borders of ponds. May, Moist, sandy soils. May, Woods and swamps. June, Mossy swamps. June, Mossy swamps. May, Swamps. May, Wet limestone rocks, May, Swamps. - - | Northward. May, Swamps. May, Wet swamps: common. May, Swamps & moist woods. NATURAL HISTORY. 109 TasiE 1V.—Continued. Common Name. Systematic Name. eect Place of growth. Conical-fruited Sedge, . Carex conoidea, . ° -|May, . . | Wet swamps. Slender Wood Sedge, . . | Carex digitalis, . : -| May, -. - | Woods and hill-sides. Hitchcock’s Sedge, 5 . | Carex Hitchcockiana, . -|May, . . | Woods, hill-sides. Small Few-fruited Sedge, . | Carex oligocarpa, . -| May, . . | Woods. Crooked-necked Sedge, . . | Carex tetanica, . - -|May, . - | Margin of lakes and Two-edged Sedge, . - . | Carex anceps, . : .| May, . A Woods. Pale, Smooth Sedge, _ . .| Carex blanda, . - -| May, . . | Swamps and dry open Crawe’sSedge, . . . | Carex Crawei, . . * - - Haske of rivers. Plantain-leayed Sedge, . . | Carex plantaginea, : . | April, May, . | Shady, rocky ravines. Carey’s Sedge, A : . | Carex Careyana, . 5 «| Miay,) 4. . | Shady, dry woods. Bristled-leaved White Sedge, | Carexeburnea, . - .-|May, . . | Limestone hills. Fringed Sedge, . c . | Carex flexilis, . . .| June, . . | Moist, shady places. Short-beaked Woody Sedge, .| Carexarctata, . - -| May, . . | Moist woods, swamps. Weak Sedge, . 4 : . | Carex debilis, . 4 -| May, . . | Moist woods, swamps. Millet-like Sedge, . . . | Carex miliacea, . : -| May, . - | Wet swamps. Lake Sedge, . : : . | Carex lucustris, . - + {OUUe, 6 . | Deep swamps, borders of lakes. Tuckerman’s Sedge, . . | Carex Tuckermani, . ; - - | Wet swamps. Washington’s Sedge, _ . . | Carex Washingtoniana, 3 - - | Near summit of Mount Washington. Gray’s Sedge, ; 4 . | Carex Grayii, : A

23 Boe dey ‘Scnrais 3 ou OR A 2 $ 5S 9 A=) a eS NPA ee a Red Clover, ; - Ss t 5 : 22.55 3.67 44.47 19.75 9.56 Perennial Clover, : : . i Okc 19.18 4.09 42.42 25.96 8.35 Cabin Clover)... ylois cos (dou a & 16.60 3.73 87.50 32.39 9.78 WOSTRGRRASS yee Meese ike Uw coy yay og hohe 24.33 38.57 36.36 24.14 11.60 Cow Gras3,2dspecimen, . . . =. 18.77 4.77 49.65 18.84 7.97 Hop Trefoil, Re, Anicy a 20.48 4.67 43.86 22.66 | 8.88 White Clover, . : . . . f 18.76 4.38 40.04 26.53 10.29 Common Vetch, . 5 : zy 4 ¢ 23.61 3.06 39.45 27.38 6.50 Sainfoin, . : : : 5 : 5 18.45 3.01 45.96 24.71 7.87 Lucerne, or Alfalfa, . aor at Gee: 12.76 2.76 40.16 84.21 10.11 Black Medick, . - : . : é 24.60 4.06 83.31 27.19 10.84 A glance at this table will show that the different principles in the artificial grasses vary to a great extent, as follows :— Lowest. Highest. Average. Flesh-forming principles, . . 12.76 24.60 18.68 Fat-producing principles, . a tem 4.77 3.76 Heat-giving principles, . . d0.31 49.65 41.48 The difference in composition exhibited in the natural grasses of table [X. are very marked, and of course, the value of the grasses as compared with each other must vary greatly. Still, the practical value of a grass depends somewhat upon circum- stances which cannot be analyzed, such as the period at which it arrives at maturity, and the particular soil and location of the farmer. It might happen that a grass not in itself so rich in nutritive qualities as another, would be preferred on account of its coming to maturity just at the time when the farmer most needed it. But the particular value of this table is, that it shows the comparative nutritive qualities of the grasses, since all the specimens were collected and investigated in the same manner, at the same period of growth,—or as nearly as_possi- ble,—when in the flower, so that whatever sources of error NUTRITIVE VALUE. 123 might exist to modify the results, they would naturally apply to all alike. The grasses from the irrigated meadow consisted principally of June, or Kentucky blue grass, rough stalked meadow grass, perennial rye grass, meadow soft grass, barley grass, meadow oat grass and a few other species, and it will be noticed that in combination they abound in flesh and fat-forming principles to a greater extent than we should be led to suppose from the composition of any one of them alone. Our favorite Timothy compares very favorably with the other grasses, containing a less percentage of useless matter as woody fibre, than any other, except Italian rye grass and crested dog’s- tail, a grass not common with us, and the irrigated grasses. In point of soluble, heat-producing principles, sugar, gum and starch, it is surpassed by the Italian rye grass, but by no others. The analyses of this grass in its green and dry states in tables VII. and IX., fully justify the preference which we have long shown for the use of Timothy ; for, as taken from the field at the time of blossoming, it will be found to contain less water, (table VII.,) a greater percentage of flesh and fat-forming principles, and less useless matter in the shape of woody fibre, than most of the other grasses. The deductions of science certainly correspond, in this case, with the results of practice. A comparison of tables VII. and IX. with tables VIII. and X. will show the comparative advantages of the use of the artificial grasses, in point of albuminous or flesh-forming principles and fatty matters. The carbonaceous or heat-producing principles remain nearly the same throughout, while the percentage of waste matter or woody fibre is less than in the natural grasses. This is an important fact, worthy of the careful consideration of the farmer. In the sixth column of table IX. will be found the percentage of ash of each of the grasses analyzed. Table XI. contains a still further analysis of this ash, which gives all the inorganic constituents which the plant derives from the soil and the manures furnished to it. It is important and suggestive to one who will examine it carefully, as indicating the kind of manure which in many cases it may be desirable to apply. The first peculiarity which plainly appears from a glance at the ash analyses, is the very large percentage of silicates and 124 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. TABLE XI. Artificial Grasses. Analysis of the Ash of some of the Natural and Common Name. Meadow Foxtail, . Sweet-scented Vernal, Downy Oat Grass, Upright Brome Grass, Soft Brome Grass, Crested Dog’s-tail, Orchard Grass, Orchard Grass, with seeds ripe, . Hard Fescue Grass, Meadow Soft Grass, Meadow Barley Grass, Perennial Rye Grass, . Annual Spear Grass, . June Grass, Rough-stalked Meadow Grass, Timothy, Annual Rye Grass, Yellow Oat Grass, Red Clover, . White Clover, Sainfoin in flower, Sainfoin in seed, . Italian Rye Grass in flower, Italian Rye Grass in seed, . 23 FI ab als pele vibe vee : aa. #3) /2/=/2/ |dlelal led 4°) 4/2/21 4/4lslé|2/8\a°e 7.81 38.751 6.25| 2.16) .65) 3.90 1.28 47'37.08 -| 9.50 = 6.82 28.36 10.09} 3.39} 1.26) 9.21 2.58 1.18 32.03) -| 7.08 4.90 §.22 36.28 10.82) 3.87} -— | 4.72.3.17) .72 31.21 sip 4.05 5.66 5.21 88.48) 7.58! 5.46) .55 10.88 4.99] .26 20.88) -| 10.63 1.88 5,82 38.34! 9.62} 4.91) 9.07| 6.64 2.60) .28 30.09, .33 - |3.11 6.88 40.11) 7.24} 8.20} - |10.16 2.43] .18 24.99) -| 11.60 = 5.31 26.65) 8.60] 3.52) 2.09, 5.82 2.22) .5929.52) -! 17.86 3.09 5.51 82.18) 6.41] 3.96] 2.88) 8.14 3.47) .28 88.06) -| 4.87, 4.76 5.42 28.58 12.07) 8.45) 1.88 10.81 2.83) .78 31.84, -| 8.17] .62 6.37|28.81| 8.02) 4.41] 1.82) 8.313.411] .31 34.88) -| 3.91) 6.66 5.67,56.28, 6.04; 4.29) - | 5.04 2.42) .66 20.26 3.40 — | 1.66 7.54.27.18, 8.73) 5.20] .49) 9.64.2.85) .21 24.67; -| 18.80 7.25 2.83 16.03, 9.11)10.18} 3.29 11.69 2.44 1.57 41.86) -—- AT 3.35 5.94 82.98 10.02) 4.26] .40] 5.68 2.71! .28 31.17) —-| 11.25 1.31 8.83 87.50) 9.18} 4.47) .29] 8.803.22] .2929.40} -] 6.90 - 5.29 31.09 11.29] 4.86) 4.02,14.945.30) .27 24.25) —- 70 3.24 6.45 41.79 10.07] 3.45) - | 6.82 2°59 aoe 87 - /5.11 5.28 35.20} 9.81} 4.00) - | 7.98 3.07 2.40 36.06) .73 = ees 9.56| .59) 6.71] 1.85 23.47 22.62 4.08) mae -| 2.389 1.53 — | 3.68 11.58) 7 21 echoed 8.15 1.96 14.33 3.72 — |4.95 6.87| 3.22] 9.385) 3.28 15 ai ad 5.08} .61.31.90} -| 6.24) .78 6.50) 3.49) 7.97 ee ne .58 29.61 1.25 = oslo 6.97 59.18] 6.84) 2.82) - | 9.95 2.23) .78 12.45 3.98 = | 227 6.40 60.62) 6.82) 1.31) - /12.29 2.64 saslabes ld} — | 5.58 potash contained in the natural grasses, and the very small comparative percentage of silica in the artificial. grasses, the The large percentage of lime and red and white clovers. carbonic acid attract our attention in the latter. exceedingly valuable as suggesting the proper course of manur- ing for the most successful cultivation of the various crops con- tained in it. This table is If now we cast our eye at the analysis of some of our com- NUTRITIVE VALUE. 125 Taste XII. Analysis of Specimens of Weeds, as taken from the field, and when dried. g A dea [2] °o uw Cr. o 2 57 . 3 s he. eel ue Name of Plant. 2 Sys (iat ka bie = bettas bed aie= ° 3 a3 Se = 2 £ 3 ete 3 ga] 8 4a A e |< & | a Fol4 Ox-eye Daisy, ( Crysanthemum leucanthemum,)| June 28, | 71.85| 2.12] .999 | 12.64] 10.51! 1.86 Yellow Buttercup, (Ranunculus acris,) - .| June 13, | 88.15) 1.18| .507} 6.26} 3.00 91 Sorrel, (Rwmex acetosa,). Ch ee .| July 4, | 75.87] 1.90] .545| 7.62| 13.04) 1.51 DrieD SPECIMENS OF THE SAME. Ox-eye Daisy, . A : 3 é ; RE Se - ‘i 5 Buttercup, . a : : “ : S|) eee ~ 9.98 | 4.28 | 52.69 | 25.84] 7.71 Sorrel, - : 6 : : 3 ‘ a [b= - - 7.71 | 2.19 | 46.82 | 87.16] 6.12 mon weeds, we shall see how far superior the cultivated grasses are in nitrogenous or nutritive principles. The albuminous principles are very much less than in either the natural or the artificial grasses. A line of investigation, both scientific and practical, equally interesting and valuable with the foregoing, would lead into the comparative nutritive equivalents of hay and other feeding sub- stances. This is not the place to discuss that subject in full, the line of our present inquiry embracing only the compara- tive nutritive values of the grasses themselves. For convenience of reference, however, I subjoin the following table, (XUI.,) embracing the results of the profoundest researches of many distinguished chemists and practical men, both in the labora- tory and the barn. Boussingault and others in France, and Fresenius, Thaer and others in Germany, have devoted to these and similar investigations the best part of their lives. It is necessary to remark that tables of nutritive equivalents are liable to imperfections, on account of sources of error which must exist in the nature of things, as difference of soil, climate, season, imperfection of methods of analysis, &c.; but making all allowance for these, and admitting that the table cannot be absolutely, and literally correct or perfect, it possesses great practical value and interest as giving a good general idea of the relative value for feeding purposes, of various agricultural products. 126 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. In regard to the nutritive value, as based on the amount of nitrogen or nitrogenous compounds, it may be remarked that the latest and most careful experiments, conducted by most experienced and competent experimenters, tend to show that this basis is correct, so far as it can be applied to substances so analogous in composition that they can be included in one group; as for example, the different root crops possess a nutri- tive value in proportion to the amount of nitrogen they contain, but the nutritive value of a root ought not to be compared with a succulent vegetable, like clover, for instance, by the propor- tion of nitrogen in each, merely, without taking into considera- tion other properties. In other words, roots may be compared with each other on that basis merely, and grasses with each other, and leguminous plants with each other, but not root crops and grasses. This fact is alluded to as a possible source of error in some of the earlier researches of Boussingault, and not as materially affecting the practical value of the table. The mode of using table XIII. is very simple. Good upland meadow hay,—or what would be called in New England, good English hay,—is taken as a standard of comparison. Now if we wished to produce the same results with carrots as with one hundred pounds of good, average English hay, we must use, according to Boussingault’s column of equivalents, 382 pounds of carrots, or for each pound of hay, 3.82 pounds of carrots, and according to the practical experiments mentioned, 366 pounds, 250 pounds, 225 pounds, 300 pounds, and so on, to each 100 pounds of hay. According to the theoretical values of Boussingault, 100 pounds of hay are equal in feeding qualities to 65 pounds of bar- ley, 60 pounds of oats, 58° pounds of rye, or 55 pounds of wheat. While, according to the experiments of Thaer, 100 pounds of hay produced the same effect as 76 pounds of barley, 86 pounds of oats, 71 pounds of rye, 64 pounds of wheat. With regard to the analyses of tables VII., VIII., 1X. and X., some allowance should undoubtedly be made for difference of climate, since it is well known that grasses, as well as other plants, grown rapidly in a hot sun, which we usually have in the months of May, June and July, contain a much larger amount of nutritive and saccharine matter than those grown slower and in a greater amount of available moisture both in 127 NUTRITIVE VALUE. Tasur XIII. Nutritive Equivalents. (Practical and Theoretical.) TITEORETICAL VALUES LoussincauLy. FRESENIUS. a eee ee ARTICLES OF FOOD. = “8¢ 1 gea\28 leRBESI- © qa mH Y wm SO a »eoy Py oo [Oe heh ea. lattes) £3 s 3 sf | 882 |&22| 228 sses2| £8 | 4 gj ee gs Sse £3 [fee |fee| Ee esaee| $2 | 2 | & | & | #.| B-)-4 | 4 e |e ae ae Z a 4 A a a 1 a English Hay, .- . id . . A 5 ° 11.0 1 34 1.15 100 = 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Lucerre, . : . 3 j “ : x F “ 16:6 1.66 1.38 &8 = - - 90 - 90 100 100 ~ Red Clover Ilay, 0 3 : 3 : 3 i 5 10.1 1.70 1.54 75 |Lto 6.08 | 77.9 100 90 - 90 100 100 - Red Clover (green), - ‘ : 5 : ; : 76.0 - 64 sil - - 430 - - 450 425 - - Rye Straw, - 2 c : C : - ; 18.7 380 24 479 |1to 24.40 | 527 7-12) 200 500 150 666 350 - 267 Oat Straw, . 6 A . : F 3 5 ; ‘ 21.0 85 39 383 |1 to 12.50 | 445 5-12) 200 200 150 190 200 400 200 Carrot Leaves (tops), - 5 % ; 5 7 : : 70.9 2.94 85 135 - = - - - - - - - Ceeiedes, 6.2 crm ems = (SO PS a7 | 676 iS = a ea - | 300 | 250 | 200 “ Mangold Wuyrzel, Bt Ex ; ea ae Tee ae - - - - [|lto 7.26 | 8914 366 400 250 460 250 338 3663 White Silician Beet, . x F . : ; ; 85.6 1.43 18 669 - - - - - - - - - Carrots, : n i : ; 0G : : 87.6 2.40 80 382 l1to 7.84] 542.1 366 250 225 3800 250 270 800 Potatoes, . ; ‘ z ‘ : ¢ ? : 75.9 1.50 36 319 |1to 9.00] 880 5-12; 216 200 150 200 200 200 200 Potatoes kept in pits, - F 3 : : 5 Pee yeas) 1.18 .30 383 - . 400 - - - - - - Beans, ‘ c : 5 3 2 : ; ; ; 7.9 §.50 §.11 23 |lto 2.8 84 5-12 30 54 50 73 40 - 30 oe ee res eee om |. 88 aes) eee a7 |1to 2.14| 34} 30 BA 48 66 40 30 Indian Corn, ° 5 : : s 3 is a , 18.0 2.00 1.64 70 |1to 6.55 - - 52 - - - - Buckwheat, 5 ? a : F : : ‘ - 12.5 2.40. , 2.10 55 |1lto 6.05 93 5-12 ~ 64 ~ - - - - MERC mac. ng we Be pee (ASS | 1.76 65. |lto 425] - 83 61 58 76 50 5 35 Oats, . - c fe : 4 ; : 4 ; 12.4 2.22 1.92 60 jl to 4.08 58 11-12 394 71 - 86 60 - 374 Rye, . : ; : : ‘i : . . - 4 11.5 2527; 2.00 68 |1lto 4.42 58. 1-16 33 55 51 71 50 - 334 Wheat, 5 c = : J : ‘ ; é - 10.5 2.33 2.09 65 jl to 2,42 88 5-6 Py 52 46 64 » 40 - 30 Oil-cake (Linseed), Bee ies ar Be i a= soc ace 13.4 6.00 5.20 22 - ae 42 108 - = = ae ee SBS Practical values, as obtained by experiments in feeding, according to 128 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. the atmosphere and the soil, which is ordinarily present in the climate of England. Every observing farmer knows that erasses grown on our low, reclaimed swamp lands, for instance, make less milk, and less flesh and fat in animals, than the same species grown on our dry, upland soils. The same difference must exist, to some extent, between our grasses and the grasses erown in a comparatively moist climate, where they have the advantage of more frequent rains, which push them to a more complete development and give them greater luxuriance, in- creasing, of course, the quantity of their produce, while their quality cannot be improved in the points alluded to. This sub- ject wiil come more properly under discussion in treating of the INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS. We now come to consider the influence which the season or the climate has upon the quantity and nutritive quality of grass. Before entering upon this topic, it is proper to remark, that in order to bring together the practical wisdom and judgment of some of the best farmers in the State, as well as to be able to present some statistical information in regard to the product of grass and hay for the past season, I directed the following circular to one or more farmers in every town in Massachusetts, asking for replies from each. Board oF AGRICULTURE, STATE mee : Boston, Sept. 1, 1856, Dear Sir :—Will you have the goodness to reply to the following inquiries in reference to the grass and hay crop of your town, accord- ing to the best of your judgment and experience? If circumstances prevent your giving it personal attention, will you be kind enough to put it into the hands of some one interested in the subject in your neighborhood, who will do me the favor to answer it? 1. What was the estimated yield of grass and hay in your town this season, as compared with others? If above or below the aver- age, how much? 2. What, in your opinion, is the effect of a wet or a dry season on the quality of grass and hay? Is grass grown in the shade as good as that grown in the sun, and what is the difference ? [This question embraces the intrinsic value of hay this season as compared with the crops of 1854 and 1855, both comparatively dry seasons, while this has been unusually wet in most parts of the State.] INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS. 129 8. In what month do you prefer to seed down land designed for mowing, and what is the reason of your preference? 4. What varieties of grass seed do you usually sow for mowing, » and what for permanent pasturage, and in what quantities and pro- portions, per acre? : 5. Do you prefer to sow grass seed alone in either case, or with some variety of grain? If the latter, why, and with what grain? 6. Have you cultivated or raised orchard, fowl meadow, or blue joint grasses, and with what result as compared with the yield and value of other grasses? 7. At what stage of growth do you prefer to cut grass to make into English and into swale hay, and what is the reason for your preference ? 8. What is the best mode of making hay from Timothy, from red- top, and from wet meadow grass, and at what state of dryness do you consider it made, or fit to get into the barn? (This question embraces, to some extent, the time taken to make it under ordinary circum- stances of good weather, &c. This, of course, varies greatly, but some farmers would dry grass cut in the blossom two good hay days, while others would prefer to cure it less, and get it in on the day it was cut.] 9. Wall you state in detail how you make or cure clover, and how, when so cured, it compares in value with other kinds of hay to feed out to farm stock? 10. Have you used hay caps, and if so, with what result, in point of econgmy? How were they made and at what cost ? 11. Have you used a mowing machine, and if so, what patent, with what power, and with what advantage? 12. At what height from the ground do you prefer to have your grass cut, and why? 18. Have you used a horse-rake, and if so, what patent, and with what advantage ? 14. Do you feed off the after growth of your mowing lands in the fall? Do you think it an injury or a benefit to the field to feed it off? 15. Do you top-dress your mowing or pasture lands, and if so, what manure do you prefer to use, at what time, and in what quantities do you apply it? 16. What is the best mode of renovating old worn out pasture lands? 17. If you have any experience in ditching and draining wet meadow, or ditching or diking salt marsh, will you state the result, and the comparative value of the grass before and after the operation? 18. What are the most valuable varieties of salt marsh grasses, and how does the hay made from them compare in value with good English hay? 17 130 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 19. Have you any experience in irrigating mowing or pasture lands, and if so, what is the result? 20. Do you prefer to salt your hay when putting into the ees and if so, what quantity do you use, per ton? 21. What do you consider the best mode of destroying couch or twitch grass? 22. What is the best mode of destroying the white weed or ox-eye daisy ? 23. Will you give any other details not suggested by the above, which, in your opinion, may be considered important, in regard to this crop, and particularly if you have experimented with any varietics of grass not in general cultivation, such as lucerne or alfalfa, rye grass, brome grass, Kentucky blue grass, &c., will you state the results as fully as possible? If you have any varieties of grass found to be valuable but not in general cultivation, the names of which are not known to you, will you send them to this office where the names will be given? Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES L. FLINT, Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. I am indebted to the kindness of many enterprising and intelligent farmers for full and valuable answers from more than two hundred towns in the State, and these alone would make a valuable volume of themselves. I can, of course, do no more than extract from them as freely as space will permit, which I shall do at greater length in the subsequent sections. No crop, perhaps, is more dependent on the seasons than the grasses. Every farmer knows that a moist spring, with rains evenly distributed over the months of April, May and June, will insure him the most luxuriant crops of grass and hay ; and he knows, also, that a dry, cold spring is fatal to their rapid and healthy development, and that he must, in such a spring, expect a comparatively small crop. These and many similar facts are familiar to the commonest practical observation. It has also been found by observation that the grasses will vegetate when the temperature of the air is above the freezing point of water, 32° Fahrenheit, provided the temperature of the soil ranges from 35° to 40,° while a lower temperature checks their growth. Vegetation, at temperatures higher than these, depends much on the amount of‘moisture and heat, both INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS. 131 of the soil and the atmosphere. Grass will not vegetate when the temperature of the air is higher than 66° unless the soil is very moist. When the vapor of the air is at its maximum, or when the air is saturated with moisture, vegetation advances with the greatest rapidity, and this most frequently happens with us in the earlier growing months, April, May and June. But when the moisture in the atmosphere is slight, and the soil becomes dry, and the subsoil is porous, the turf of our fields and pastures suffers from the drought, and scarcely a year passes over us when this does not happen. A writer in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, (quoted in the Farmers’ Magazine, Vol. ix., No. 5, Third Series,) after many careful observations, comes to the conclusion, First. That the growth of grass is always proportionate to the heat of the air, if a sufficiency of moisture be present in the atmosphere. Second. That in the climate of England the moisture present is rarely sufficient to allow the temperature to have full effect, when that t2mperature exceeds 56°, but that if moisture be artificially supplied, as by irrigation, to catch water meadows, that then vegetation will still proceed in proportion to the heat. Third. That when the temperature of the air is: between 86° and 41°, the grass will only: vegetate with a fifth part of the force that it will when the temperature is 56°. Thus the land that will keep ten sheep per acre in the latter case, will only k2ep two in he former. That from 41° to 46° its growth is two-fifths, or double that of its growth when the temperature is under 41°, and it will then keep four sheep instead of two. Again, from 46° to 5u°, its growth will rice to seven-": nths, or it will keep on the same ground from five to seven sheep, and from 50° to 66°, 1; gener.ll —unless assisted by an artificial addition of moisture—arrives at its maximum; but if the month of June be very moist, it will cont:nue to grow with an increase of force up to 60°. Our climate is very different from that of England. The evaporation from the soil is ordinarily very much more rapid, and the actual amount of moisture in the air is greater, since it is well established that the evaporation is in proportion to the height of the temperature and the extent of water or land sur- face; that in the temperate zones it amounts to about thirty- seven inches a year, while in the tropics it rises to from ninety 182 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. to one hundred inches, and that the atmosphere when at the freezing point contains about a two-hundredth part of its weight of water, while at 52° it contains a hundredth part, or twice as much; at 74°, a fiftieth part, or four times as much, and at 98°, a twenty-fifth part, or eight times as much, and so on in that ratio. Now although the mean annual temperature of the two countries is about the same ,—it being near London about 48° 5’, and at Boston 48° 9',—yet the temperature of the growing months of the two countries presents a marked difference, the mean temperature of every one being with us much higher. But the climate of England is proverbially moist, notwithstand- ing that the mean annual fall of rain near London is only little over twenty-five inches, while the quantity which falls at Boston is over forty-two inches. The amount of sensible moisture of the atmosphere is greater in England than here, though the actual amount existing in our atmosphere must excee | that of the atmosphere even in the eastern part of England. Our soil is consequently dryer, and unless we have frequent rains vegetation suffers sooner, and the growth of grass is liable to be checked for the want of moisture. This actually happens more or less nearly every year. But the spring of the past year was an exception, for the quantity of rain in most parts of the State was no only somewhat larger than usual, but it was well dis- tributed over the spring months; that is, it fell frequently and in small quantities. This, as is usually the case, caused an early and remarkably luxuriant growth of grass, while the quality was not generally considered so good as the average. It may be laid down asa well-fixed principle, that the grass crop is better from large quantities of rain falling at once and at longer intervals — rovided it does not come in torrents to prostrate the crop, and that the intervals are not so long as to produce droughts, which are always attended with deleterious effects,—than from smaller quantities falling with greater fre- quenc;. The quantity in the latter case will not ordinarily be so great as in the former, but it is more than compensated, it is thought, by the increased value. More accurate statistics will throw light on this subject. As a means of comparison, the following table of the mean monthly temperature and rain at the observatory at Cambridge, during the growing months of 1854, ’55 and ’56, will be found INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS. 133 convenient. The observations were made four times a day, at sunrise, 9 A. M.,3and9P. M. The latitude being 42° 22! 48", the longitude 71° 1’. MeanTemp.; Rain in MeanTemp.| Rain in ‘(Mean Temp.| Rainin Sines in 1854. 1854. in 1855. 1855. in 1856. 1856. March, . . .| 33°21! 2949 || 39°31 | “L159 || 262.98 | °"v:970 April, . . .| 42°9| 4.842 || 44°08 | 3.990 || 45°82] 3.782 May,. . . -| 57°7| 5.453 || 58°40} 1.501 || 52°55 | 6.732 June, . . .| 65°9| 3.585 || 65°48 | 3.581 || 68°.08 | 2.869 July,. . . .| 72°9| 8.939 || 72°24) 4.945 || 72°76 | 4.948 August, . . .| 68°.6| 0.351 |} 67°.31 | 2.970 || 67°81 | 14.981 September,. .| G61°4| 4.36.0) 61°45 | 1.216 || 62°.98 e The mean temperature and the rain at Amherst, during the growing months of 1856, was as follows :— Temperature. Amount of Rain. pa ef 8 years. Fahr. Inches. Inches. PONT eee 5) volshia ao SOT AOO) ),,- Are, 3.05 eerie Ss. SO ae | April See BOLO 3.27 Me) to ts a8.) |) May eto aye BIB 3.91 PNA Ani. kis}. Here OS BG ca Fume, pin 2'e ee arte O20 3.22 eee he STOR Maly ok ENS BS 4.05 y y sw ae OO LOY | OME) cei aye BEL 4.40 Gepumber, . 9°... ). 60°.79 | September, . .° 2). 3472 3.26 The first of these places represents the eastern section of the State, the second, the western; and observations made at Boston, at Bradford, at Salem and elsewhere in the eastern part, do not materiully differ from those at Cambridge, while the observa- 134 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. tions at Williamstown and at Albany, N. Y., do not differ materially, so far as practical deductions are concerned, from those at Amherst. The amount of rain at Worcester, in the central section, in 1854, ’55 and 756, was as follows :— Months. 1854. 1855. 1856. pp BA Aes oe ah ei Co | od 1 CALC AM Ri it es ae 6.69 5.39 3.34 3.98 LEAS OS Re ORS A io has 6.78 1.64 6.55 4.36 i On, hee 3.05 4.19 1.44 2.93 ONIN te pinee aN tec ewe tera le 5.68 9.40 2.68 3.70 MIELIS HS i oc cys pete ve cece $3) 4.06 13.14 5.58 September, 0) 20) wie hi ke 5.53 -20 3.39 3.47 The amount of rain at Providence, R. I., on our southern border, was as follows :— Months. For 1856. Avernae Tie years. 3 3 Inches. Inches. April, . , 5 4 . , y ‘ 2.80 3.57 May, - 3 ; : 5 : : ; 4.10 3.93 June, . : : : : : : ; 2.47 2.95 July, . : ; : : ‘ : 4 4.20 2.91 August, . ; : : : ; j : 5.75 3.70 19.32 16.46 The amount of rain which fell at Bradford, in Essex county, in the month of August alone, was sixteen inches, the greatest, probably, ever known in one month in New England, while at Nantucket it was but a fraction over one inch; so that while INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS. 135 the vicinity of Boston and the eastern part of the State, gen- erally, was abundantly supplied, the wet meadows being flooded, -and thousands of tons of swale hay ruined, the island of Nan- tucket and some parts of Barnstable and Plymouth counties were suffering severely from drought, vegetation being entirely parched up. So great is the dependence of the grasses upon heat and moisture combined, that, knowing the results of observations of the thermometer and the rain gauge in any section, during the three growing months of April, May and June, one might pre- dict with great certainty the results of the harvest in that section ; and, on the other hand, the returns of practical farm- ers in different sections of the State, indicate so clearly and uniformly the excess above the average, or the partial failure of the crop, that a meteorological map of the State might be con- structed from them. As might be expected, therefore, from what has already been said, the yield of grass and hay throughout most parts of this State during the past year, has been somewhat above the average, the best judges estimating the excess variously from one-eighth to one-half, and it has, doubtless, in some localities, reached this latter estimate, though the general average was not, probably, over an eighth above that of other years. It may be inferred, also, from what has been said, that the quality was not quite equal to the average, and this was unques- tionably the case, where the excess in quantity was due to the excess of moisture and the rains. The remarks of an experienced, practical farmer of Ken- tucky, express very well the general estimate made by our farmers in reply to the second question proposed in the above circular. ‘Just so far,” says he, ‘‘as there is shade, is the grass-deficient in saccharine and nutritious qualities; that grass which is most exposed to the sun being best. Woodland pas- tures will keep young stock growing and old ones on foot, but will not fatten them. aan 69, 111, 116 te, Ee 62 62 62 101 102 . 8, 11, 110 8, 12 56, 59, 111 58, 59, 111 58, 60 59, 60 96, 117 230 Millium effusum, Muhlenbergia diffusa, ct erecta, . ms glomerata, sf Mexicana, ‘ sylvatica, Me sobolifera, ae Willdenovii, oe capillaris, Moha de Hongrie, Oryzopsis melanocarpa, as asferifolia, “Canadensis, . Panicum filiforme, fe glabrum, oi sanguinale, . rh agrostoides, Me proliferum, . es capillare, ie virgatum, i latifolium, ce elandestinum, ‘¢ _-xanthophysum, me crus-galli, fy germanicum, Paspalum setaceum, Phalaris arundinacea, ‘¢ Canariensis, . INDEX. 90 99 90 90 90 90 So oO Kes porprnnrnwa® eB Co 0D om F bo r= we 30 es eS ee ae DHOOAIAINAAHAASS [o.) 78, =I ie} in S73 . 4, 72, 78, 110 . 76 Phleum pratense, 5, 8, 15, 16, 17, 18, 111, 116, Phragmites communis, Poa nervata, ‘*. serotina, ‘¢ pratensis, “maritima, 118, 121 56, 110 9, 34 9, 84, 44, 153 9, 35, 36, 39, 111 9, 85, 41, 102, 111 Page. Poa compressa, - 9, 33,°112 “ annua . 5, 9, 89, 112 “ trivialis, 9, 39, 40, 112 “* nemoralis, 9, 40, 41 “ fluitans, 42, 110 is axa, 9, 48 ‘aquatica, 5 48, 10 Polypogon monspeliensis, 8, 28 Setaria verticillata, . 4 . oie coe “Giaacs, 79 Setaria viridis, 80 Setaria Italica, 80 Sorghum saccharatum, 81 a nutans, 90 = vulgare, Bie 90 Spartina cynosuroides, S30 ¢ polystachya, 380, 111 “ junceé, . 380, 111 “¢ stricta, . 30, 111 Sporobolus serotinuas, . 18 Stipa avenacea, 30 Tricuspis purpurea, a OBL Trifolium pratense, 92, 117 ‘¢ repens, 96, 117 Trisetum mollis, . 66 ge pubescens, : 2466 Triticum repens, 60, 61, 112 Tripsacum dactyloides, : é A P80 Vilfa aspera, VW “ vyaginzeflora, VW “ serotina, 18 Xyris bulbosa, 104 “ caroliniana, 104 Zea mais, 5 oihaiell Zizania aquatica, 12, 110 GENERAL INDEX. Aftermath, growth of, Alfalfa, é Allen’s Mower, 4 Ammonia, importance of, . Analysis of the’ Grasses, Annual Beard Grass, Annual Spear Grass, Arrow Grasses, list of, Ash of the Grasses, analysis of, Ashes, use of, as manure, . Barn Grass, Beach Grass, ke “ culture of, Bearded Darnel, . Bengal Grass, Black Grass, Blue Grass, Blue-joint Grass, . Bones, value of, as manure, Borden’s Grass, Bottle-brush Grass,. Bottle Grass, Brown Bent, Bristly Foxtail, Bur Grass, Canadian Lyme Grass, Chandler Grass, Chess, ‘ Chinese Sugar Cane, Circular Letter, Climate—its effect on vegetation, Clover Seed, time of sowing, 35, 89, 112, 116, 118, 121 25, 26, 28, 111, 146, 158 17, 113, 201, 203 96, 97, 99 170, 174, 175 217, 218, 228 74, 118, 121,°124 23 101 124 214, 216 78 26, 28, 29 60 8G 102, 111 38, 112 25 219 18, 19 he 79 20 79 80 ae 60, 61 51, 53, 112 81, 83, 85, 90 . 128 130, 131, 132, 136 139 232 Clover, mode of curing, Common Reed Grass, Common Manna Grass, Common Canary Grass, Common Spear Grass, Compost, modes of fentatin Corn Fodder, curing of, Couch Grass, Creeping Meadow Grass, . Creeping Soft Grass, Crested Dog’s Tail, Curing, methods of, Darnel, Drainage, importance of, . Dew Grass, Downy Persoon, Downy Oat Grass, English Bent, Fall Feeding, practice of, Fall Seeding, False Redtop, False Rice, Feather Grass, Field Barley Grass, Floating Meadow Grass, . Floating Foxtail, Flyaway Grass, Finger-spiked Wood Bas, Finger Grass, Borin, k Food of Animals, . Forest Trees, culture of, . Fowl Meadow Grass, Fresh Water Cord Grass, Fringed Brome Dhak Finetop, Fowl Meadow Ge ass, Gama Grass, Goose Grass, INDEX. Grasses, growth in sun need shade, :) Oe. dee 56, 110 42, 110 ‘ y ag ; . 85, 37, 38 920, 221, 223 189, 190 60, 61, 112 45 : . 69 50, 51, 116, 118, 121, 146 185, 187 . 56 204, 225 18, 20 66 65, 66, 111 ° 20 201, 203 137, 139, 140 44 11 30 111 2h 14, 15, 110 .¢ a 80 ne 20, 22 1, 113, 114 208, 209, 224 44 30 56 18 44 : . 80 41, 42, 102, 103, 111 131, 135, 137, 128 2,113, 128, 130 112, 113, 118, 119, 121, 122; 1675836 C effect of soil and seasons on, “ nutritive value of the, “ mixtures of, « list of the, 118, 142, 144, 147, 151, 158, 160 8, 110, 111, 116 ; INDEX. 233 Grasses, importance of the, : : 2 “3 ae aa eke fe classification of, . : : Be Ge Ly Tiles c description or natural history of, : Oe tl ta tie “ technical terms applied to the, . : : : 2, 0, 6, 7 & flowers of the, . : : : : : Dy. Dd “ time of cutting, . ai ; : - 161, 162, 164, 166 “© analysis of the, . : 3 : 54, 118, 120, 121, 122 « time of sowing, . : : / : : Bide 4 Grass Lands, treatment of : ; : . 204, 207, 208, 224 i “« top-dressing of, ; : ; ; : 2 ko as “ drainage of, : ; : ‘ : . 204 Grass Seed, mode of buying, an : é : 141, 145 «“ “ weight of, . ! ‘ . . 145, 146, 148, 159 a “¢ germination of, : ‘ : 6, 131, 142, 146, 147 4 “time of wha: : : : ‘ 137, 140 “selection of, ‘ 3 : : : 141, 142° ‘“¢ depth of covering, . : : 5 ; . 146 ‘Green Foxtail, . ~ : é ; ‘ : 5 ee Green Meadow Grass, . ; ‘ : ‘ . . oO, at, oo Guano as a top-dressing, . ‘ ° : : : 205, 222 _Hassock Grass, . ; ; : : . 63, 110, 146 Hairy ‘Slender Basaakent: ; : : es ae Papi | Hair Panicled Meadow Grass, _ . : ‘ : B ee Hair Grass, : 3 5 : : : Eifel Hair Stalked Panic Cases : : : t : ove Hairy Meadow Grass, .. : - : 46 Hay, nutritive value of, . : ‘ ‘ 103, 104, 109, 126, 127 P eorme of, . * : : : : : : 181, 183 Hay Caps, use of, . : ; ; : : : 196, 199 ‘s « permanent, . ; ; : : 200, 201 Hard Fescue Grass, : ; é WOO; 110, 116, 118, 121, 146 Heath’s Mower, . ; , : : é 175, 176, 177 Hoove in Cattle, . ; : : ay : : 101, 104 Horserake, use of, ‘ ; A ; : 191, 198, 195 Hungarian Millet, , : : “ : : 78, 80 Indian Corn, ‘ eae oi . ‘ 6, 91, 92, 115, 189, 190 Indian Millet, P : : ; ; : : Biel) Indian Rice, 4 : : : : : : «sty Indian Grass, d - fi : A a 3 2 ae SU Irrigation, effect of, ; ; . ‘ 118, 121, 123, 226, 226 Italian Rye Grass, é : . 58, 59, 60, 111, 118, 121, 123, 146 June Grass, : : ; . .” 35, 37, 38, 118, 121, 146 Kentucky Blue Grass, _ . d : : 3 . 980, 87, 38 Ketchum’s Mower, ‘ ¢ : : ‘ 171, 173 30 234 Late Drop Seed, Lawn Grasses, mixture of, Long Panicled Manna Grass, Lucerne, culture of, = nutritive value of, Lyme Grass, Manny’s Mower, . F Manures for Grass Lands, Meadow Fescue Grass, Meadow Brome Grass, Meadow or Swale Hay, . Meadow Spear Grass, Meadow Soft Grass, Meadow Oat Grass, Meadow Foxtail, . Millet Grass, Mixtures of Grass Seed, Mountain Rice, Mowing, height of, Mowing Machines, use of, 4g ee premiums for, Nitrogen, importance of, in food, . Nutritive Value of Grasses, Nutritive Equivalents, tables of, . Nerved Manna Grass, Nitrogen, value of, in plants, Nodding Fescue Grass, Oil Cake, effect of, as food, Orchard Grass, . k Over-seeding with few species, Pasture Grasses, . Pastures, turf of old, “renovation of, Perennial Rye Grass, Poverty Grass, Prolific Panic Grass, Quaking Grass, Quitch Grass, Rattlesnake Grass, Redtop, Red Clover, a “ curing of, INDEX. gis 153, 154 Spe 96, 97, 99, 146 120, 122 62 168, 169, 175 205, 210, 214, 219, 222 47, 48, 111, 146 56, 57 103, 104, 109 . 34, 118, 121 68, 69, 111, 118, 121, 146 66, 110 12, 13, 17, 68, 111, 116, 118, 121 76, 146 "142, 144, 151, 158, 158, 160 ‘ «0B 179, 181 167 167 114, 115 112, 114, 118, 119, 120, 121, 126, 163 : : : 125, 127 34 114 50 : . es 5, 31, 32, 58, 110, 111, 116, 118, 121, 146 : : - 159 148, 151, 152, 166 148, 149 205, 209, 210, 224 56, 57, 110, 146 30 77 46, 47, 118,121 60, 61 : é od Se - te 18, rhe 116, 118, 121, 146, 148 . 92, 93, 95, 119, 120, 122, 146, 148 186, 188 INDEX. Reed Canary Grass, “ “a te Red Fescue Grass, Rhode Island Bent, Ribbon Grass, Rice Grass, Roots of Timothy Coe: : Rough Stalked Meadow Grass, Rush-like Grasses, list of, Rush Grass, Rush Salt Grass, . nutritive value of, Salt Marshes, ditching of, Salt Marsh Grass, Salt Reed Grass, Sand Grass, Sainfoin, . ‘Sea Spear Grass, Seasons, influence of, Sedges, list of, Seed, selection of, Seneca Grass, Shade—its effect on the quality of of grass, . Sheeps’ Fescue Grass, : Slender Crab Grass, Slender Foxtail, ; Slender Spiked Fescue, . Slender Meadow Grass, Slender Hairy Lyme Grass, Small Fescue Grass, Smooth Crab Grass, Soil—its effect on the grasses, Soils, mixture of, Soft Brome Grass, Squirrel-tail Grass, Star Grasses, list of, : Starch, transformation into nace fibre, . Striped Grass, Stooking of Corn, peaetibe of, Sugar, manufacture of, Swale Grass, Sweet-scented Vernal bd. Swale Hay, value of, Tall Fescue Grass, Tall Smooth Panic Grass, Tall Oat Grass, Time of cutting grass for lay, 235 72, 73, 74, 76, 110 . 54 49, 50, 146 19 5 BS 11, 110 164, 165, 166 39, 40, 112, 118, 121 101, 102 a, 30, 111 104 30, 110 30, 111 ee 100, 120, 122, 146 41, 42, 102, 103 P . 128, 130, 182, 137 105 141, 142 Petey) 128, 135, 136 47, 48, 110, 146 - 76 sept 50, 51, 146 46 62 46 ’ is ah 2, 19, 113, 144 211, 223 112 62 . 104 163, 179 73 190 81, 82, 89 104, 105, 109, 112 71, 116, 118, 121, 146 54, 105, 162 49, 110, 146 lil 66, 68, 111, 146, 116, 118, 121 161, 163, 164 236 Timothy, St ea ae ro. See 17, 60, 116, 118, 121, 123, 148, 163, 164 vs sown with Clover, : 17, 144, 148 4 time of cutting, 166 - Tickle Grass, Top-dressing of grass lad, Treatment of grass lands, Tufted Hair Grass, Twitch Grass, Uprig’.t Sea Lyme Grass, Vanilla Grass, Vegetation, conditions of, Velvet Grass, Water Hair Grass, Water Spear Grass, Wavy Meadow Grass, Weather—its eifect on vegetation, Weeds, analysis of, White Clover, White Grass, White Top, : Wild Oat Grass, . Willard’s Bromus, Wire Grass, Wild Chess, Wild Rice, Wild Water Foxtail, Wild Rye, Woburn Experiments, Wood Hair Grass, Wood Meadow Grass, Wood Reed Guass, Yellow Oat Grass, Yellow-eyed Grasses, list of, | 210, 212, 221 204, 207, 209, 224 63, 110, 146 60, 61, 112 62 5 130, 131 69, 146 2: 128, NSA 135, 136 - : 125 96, 97, 120, 122, 146 ‘ s ie 20, 65, 111, 146 . 62 113, 114 63, 64 40 23 66, 118, 121, 146 104 Erratum.—On p. 102, sixth line from the bottom, for p. 49, Fig. 80, read p. 41, Fig. 30. 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