REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 199 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



permanent pasture mixtures, it has no superior and never should be omitted. It pro- 

 duces, when closely fed, probably more actual food for stock than any other grass, and its 

 season lasts except in very dry localities from early in the spring until hard frost. It is 

 essentially a pasture grass, and produces but very little hay, 



Canada Blue Grass (Poa comjyi'essa, L.). — This grass is also known as ' "Wire Grass ' 

 and ' Flat-stemmed Meadow Grass.' It produces a rather small crop of exceedingly 

 heavy rich hay. When fed down, it reproduces itself rapidly and is almost as valuable as 

 Kentucky Blue Grass. The seed of this grass is largely sold as lawn grass, but it is not 

 nearly so well suited for this purpose as Kentucky Blue Grass, on account of a reddish 

 tinge which it takes on when touched with frost or when affected by drought. It has not 

 the same liabit as Kentucky Blue Grass of spreading extensively by underground root 

 shoots or stolons, and therefore does not form so rapidly a thick sod. 



Red Top (Agrostis vulgaris, Withg.). — This grass produces in damp soil a very large 

 quantity of fine but not very rich hay. It is of special value in wet land, where it will stand 

 more water than any other of the cultivated grasses. It is palatable to stock and should 

 always be used in grass mixtures for low lands. It seeds freely and spreads rapidly. 



Timothy (Phleum pratense, L.). — This grass is too well known by Canadian farmers 

 to require any special mention. When mixed with clover for hay, the Mammoth Red 

 or late clover should be used, as these two plants come to maturity at the same time, 

 while the Common Red Clover is about a week earlier than Timothy. 



SIMPSON'S TRUE-PERENNIAL RED CLOVER. 



(See Plate.) 



In the spring of 1897, I received from Mr. Walter Simpson, of Bay View, Prince 

 Edward Island, some roots of a very interesting clover which he had found growing 

 spontaneously on his farm. This clover has now been cultivated here in the experi- 

 mental grass plots for six years, and has shown that it possesses many valuable agricul- 

 tural characteristics. It is a long-lived perennial which spreads by copious underground 

 stolons. Although not producing so much fodder as the Common and Mammoth Red 

 Clovers — it has given as much as one and a-half tons of hay to the acre — it is much more 

 persistent. Owing to its stoloniferous root system, it does not suffer, as those well 

 known varieties do, from heaving and winter-killing. A plot of this clover one square 

 rod in extent, was planted on April 23, 1901, by setting out root shoots in rows one 

 foot apart, with the plants six inches apart in the rows. By June 7, there was a growth 

 of three inches, and by July 26 the bed had an average height of four inches, many 

 of the plants being in flower. This plot was not cut at mid-summer, and the seed was 

 ripe by .September 21. On July 3, 1902, the bed was a heavy mat of thick clover 

 twelve inches high, with fine leaves and many large purple flowers, as shown in the plate 

 herewith. The whole plot was saved for seed, which was ripe by the first week in 

 October. Unfortunately, this clover has shown under cultivation the serious defect of 

 maturing very little seed. It has, however, never been treated as the ordinary Red 

 or Mammoth Clovers are when grown for seed, by being cut for hay in midsummer and 

 the seed collected from the second crop. Under similar circumstances, the varieties 

 above named also show this defect to some extent, as is mentioned by Professor W. J. 

 Beal, in his ' Grasses of North America.' Next year the first crop will be cut as soon as 

 the plants are well in flower, and the seed will be saved from the second crop. If it 

 still shows the same partial sterility, an effort will be made to produce an improved form 

 by hybridizing it with Common Red, Mammoth and other clovers. 



I am unable to come to a decision upon the exact botanical status of this clover. 

 It does not answer in all respects with any known and described species of clover, but 



