SECRETARY'S REPORT. 89 



late ia its growth, and furnishes a good bite of succulent feed at a 

 time when few others do, which may account for the observed par- 

 tiality of cattle for it at such times. In agricultural value it ranks 

 higher than Poa annua and inferior to Poa pratensis. 



Poa j)rate7isis — June Grass — Smooth-stalked Meadow Grass — 

 Spear Grass — Kentucky Blue Grass. (For a cut of this grass see 

 page 72.) 



This is one of the most common and widely diffused grasses, 

 and varying much in size and appearance, according to soil and 

 culture. It is an early and excellent pasture grass, and in good 

 soils makes a fiiir quantity of very good hay. In Ohio and Ken- 

 tucky, it is known as Blue grass and highly valued, forming the 

 principal feed ipx the famous Blue grass pastures. It starts early 

 and grows late in autumn, but suffers more than some other grasses 

 from drouth. It is less injured by cold and other climatic changes 

 than almost any other species, and where milder winters prevail, is 

 chiefly depended on for winter pasturage ; and where snows cover 

 the ground in winter, the previous year's growth is sometimes eaten 

 in spring, before starting into new growth. Dairy cows fed upon 

 it, will, it is sxid, furnish butter of superior quality. It grows in 

 nearly all soils, being largest in such as are rich and rather moist. 

 It frequently comes in of itself ; does not come to perfection as a 

 pasture grass in less than three or four years, and so is unsuited to 

 alternate husbandry. Its chief value is as a permanent pasture 

 grass. Among English writers, Sinclair and Dixon both say it ex- 

 hausts the soil more than other grasses : an opinion from which 

 Buckman entirely dissents, saying it exhausts only by producing 

 grass, and "all good grasses exhaust the soil, if taken off in the shape 

 of hay, and this one especially, by reason of its good crops ; but 

 such should be invigorated by manuring and good cultivation, for 

 which this species amply repays." 



Poa serotiim — Fowl Meadow, Swamp Wire Grass, False Red-top. 

 The Fowl Meadow is one of the few valuable grasses indigenous to 

 America, and its excellence has been long known. 



Rev. Jared Elliot of Killingworth, Conn., in his Essays on Field 

 Husbandry, published in 1747, says — "it is sometimes called Duck 

 grass, and is supposed to have been brought into a poor piece of 

 meadow in Dcdham, Mass., by ducks and other wild water fowl, 



