106 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



GKASSES. 



BY PEOF. W. J. BBAL. 

 (Delivered at Eaton Rapids and Grand Rapids Institutes.) 



la an introductory address to the medical students of Harvard university a 

 few years ago Dr. 0. W. Holmes said that doctors had been using the common 

 elder as a remedy for 2,000 years, and had just found out that it possessed no 

 medicinal value whatever. We are reminded of the statement of Dr. Holmes 

 in the following : Mr. I. Worlidge, in 1681, speaks of rye grass as having prec- 

 edence of all other grasses. This is the first mention made of rye-grass in 

 cultivation. It has been much cultivated ever since that time, especially in 

 Great Britain and Ireland, and even to the present day it is given in nearly every 

 list by most seedsmen, but some of the best observers and experimenters no 

 longer recommend it. They think they have found out that it is not enduring 

 in permanent pasture; that it flourishes for a time, taking the cream of the 

 soil, then disappears, leaving vacancies for weeds to fill. It is not easy, after 

 rye-grass dies out, to induce other good grasses to flourish. 



Even in Great Britain, where most attention has been given to grasses, as 

 late as 1882 one of the best of Englishmen, Mr. De Laune, says: "The 

 grossest ignorance prevails about grasses." 



Farmers in this country bestow much less attention to grass lands than to 

 most other crops, Not one farmer in ten thousand can give any name or tell 

 much about three-fourths of the grasses growing on his farm, and yet all of 

 them acknowledge that grass is a very important crop and that there is much 

 difference in their value. 



The grasses commonly sown in the Northern States are timothy, red top, 

 and red clover, the latter of which is not a grass. Once in a while we find a 

 farmer who sows orchard grass, June grass, meadow foxtail, and perhaps a few 

 others. Almost any neighborhood contains fifty or more species, native or 

 introduced. We have a vast country, with every variety of soil and climate, 

 and yet make use of half a dozen species of grasses out of a total number of 

 about 3,200. 



In some of the best agricultural reports of other states considerable atten- 

 tion is given to discussing the grasses, but a careful reader cannot rid himself 

 of the opinion that many of those persons hardly know Avhat they are talking 

 about. 



THE EEASOH WHY, AND A KEMEDY. 



Why are the grasses not better known ? Farmers have tenaciously held to 

 old practices in regard to the grasses used, and their treatment. New ones 

 have often been recommended, perhaps by selfish men. Seed has been 

 ordered, but whether it was true to name or whether it ever grew or not, the 

 farmer never knew. He returned to the old varieties which he did know. 

 The grasses for a beginner are very difficult to recognize in their various 

 stages of growth and in various soils and climates. They look much alike 

 until they have been carefully compared. 



How can the farmers procure good seed true to name? The difficulties 

 have been pointed out, and many now begin to think that there are other grasses 

 worth trying, that there may be something better for certain purposes than 



