4 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



inch of ground with practice. Cattle tell when a grass is 

 friendly. A grass may be rich in nutritive matter and animals 

 refuse to eat it. A forage plant, known as Ulex Euro]}aeu8, 

 which will increase the flow of milk and ffives a orood flavor 



O CD 



to butter, is armed with sharp barbs, 



"Every blossom has a troop of swords 

 Drawn to rlefend it.'' 



Analysis often finds a plant to be wanting in nutritive mat- 

 ter which is peculiarly palatable to cattle. Bermuda grass 

 i^Cynodon dactylon), ranked as worthless, and for years 

 looked upon as a curse, when properly cured, in Southern 

 markets is worth $30 a ton for horses. 



General Characteristics. — Unlike most of the other families 

 of plants, the grasses arc restricted to no belts of latitude ; 

 nor are they bounded by any climatic range, but in every 

 country, clime and soil, spring up to dress the earth in living 

 green. The law of arrest in geographical expansion they do 

 not respect. 



Although the grasses possess or acquire a capacity to grow 

 under a wide range of climatic variations, only where there 

 are occasional snows do they ever form a true turf or sod. A 

 real grass turf rarely occurs south of Washington, or below 

 the drift range. It is the rich, green grass carpet of Ireland, 

 which makes it the Emerald Isle. It is the velvety sod of 

 Switzerland, with its "green things" growing, which named 

 her mountains the Alps. 



The bamboo and kangaroo grasses of tropical climates, do 

 not form a turf, but grow singly or in groups or tufts. At 

 Old Orchard Beach, in our own State, a species of tussac grass 

 grows, in the drifting sand, as far as it is bathed with the 

 spray of the sea. This genus, the "gold and glorj'" of the 

 Falkland Islands, contains two species, Carex trijida, which 

 is an inferior grass, and Festuca jlahellata , which will make 

 cattle thrive. Both will grow from root-slips. 



In Maine there are 125 known species of grass, which, 

 under the influence of culture and climate, may sub-divide 

 into a thousand varieties. In New Hampshire, 18 families or 



