GEAYLING INSTITUTE. 285 



acre; and this is easily saved and threshed with a flail or a machine, can be 

 easily cleaned and separated from seeds and weeds, and can be put onto the 

 market in abundance and sold cheaply. It only takes from one to two pecks 

 to sow an acre, and this costs but little. 



While timothy has many good qualities to recommend it, it has many 

 marked defects. When sown with clover, it makes but a small growth and 

 must be cut young, if the clover is secured in good season. It starts very 

 slowly in spring, is a long time in coming into flower, and after cutting the 

 second growth is slow, feeble, and of little consequence, seldom large enough 

 to cut a second time or to afford much pasture. If cut early the tuber at 

 the base of the stalk does not become sufficiently matured to keep the plant 

 alive and healthy. If cut close, the tuber is cut off, and the plants suffer 

 and become feeble, and perhaps perish. 



It is hardly suited for pasture at any time, unless it is kept quite large. 

 Horses, sheep, and especially hogs, must not be allowed to eat it close to the 

 ground. In England it stands pasturing in spring without much injury to 

 the hay crop. Besides these objections, timothy is likely to be short-lived; 

 the tubers are easily trodden out by cattle, killed by drought or frost, or 

 eaten by mice or gophers. It sometimes rusts badly. It is not hard to kill 

 when cultivating for another crop ; it starts quite readily from the seed, and 

 is well suited for one good crop of hay in a season, but is not well adapted 

 for pasture. It is not as well liked in Kansas and vicinity and in the South 

 as it is in the Northeast. 



OECHARD GRASS (UACTYLIS GLOMERATA). 



For the past fifteen years or more the writer has been accumulating notes 

 and making observations and experiments in reference to our most noted 

 grasses, and concerning none of the true grasses has there been more said or 

 written or more inquiries made than about the one above named. Like every 

 question capable of dispute, this one has two sides, and shrewd men of the 

 same neighborhood often differ very much in their estimation of orchard 

 grass. 



The grass is perennial, lasting for many years, two or three, or even five 

 feet or more in height, rather large, coarse, rough, of a light green color, and 

 grows in dense tufts unless crowded by thick seeding. The lower leaves are 

 sometimes two feet or more in length. The clustered spikelets make dense 

 masses on the small spreading panicle ; the flowers appear with those of early 

 red clover. 



It is a native of Europe, and is also now found in North Africa, India, and 

 North America, and perhaps in other countries. Although it came to this 

 country from Europe, it did not attract much attention in England until 

 sent back there in 1764 from Virginia. 



So far as quality is concerned, if cut in season or pastured when young it 

 stands well the test of cattle and the chemist. It is very nutritious, the 

 seeds start quickly and make a vigorous growth, and if the grass is not a very 

 valuable one, it is certainly not for the lack of good testimonials. 



The stems are not very abundant when compared with the leaves, hence 

 the plant is more suitable for pasture than for meadow. 



The following from Alexander Hyde of Massachusetts, is excellent and to 

 the purpose: " We have found it one of the most luxuriant and nutritious. 



