108 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



pasture. For some of the iiorthwestera country a grass must root very deeply 

 to endure dry weather for months. It must sometimes endure freezing with 

 bare ground, with the mercury down to 40° or 50*^ below zero, or endure a 

 burning sun, with the mercury at 100° or more in the shade. It must not be 

 killed by fire in dry weather. In the south it must stand much heat, much 

 moisture, much drought. 



For alternate husbandry a grass must not be hard to kill, like quick grass. 



With a large area of meadow land, it is often convenient to have different 

 sorts of grasses, that they may not all be fit to cut at the same time, thus pro- 

 longing the season of haying. For a meadow they should mature about the 

 same time. For pasture the time of flowering, or of most rapid growth, 

 should vary and extend from early spring till late autumn, or in the south it 

 should extend over a good portion of the year. 



M. Goetz found out what grasses were best adapted to his soils by a slow 

 process of testing each separately ; then he used a mixture of the seeds of 

 those species which he had found did the best. 



In England, thirty-nine species or more of true grasses are recommended 

 for use by some one. Besides these, twenty-one species of clover, or other 

 plants, are on lists for pastures or meadows, making about sixty species or 

 varieties in all, a single mixture often containing twenty or more kinds. 



Moisture makes the meadow. A free and correct distribution of moisture 

 will make good pasture, even on soils of inferior quality. Pastures on poor 

 soils in Wales and Ireland will improve under treatment that would be quite 

 insufficient on the eastern coast of England. 



In a recent admirable essay by 0. L. F. DeLauue in the "Journal of the 

 Koyal Agricultural Society" for 1883, he names the five following coarse 

 grasses as most valuable for permanent pasture: 



Dactylis glomerata — Orchard grass, 



Festuca joratensis — Meadow fescue. 



Feshica elatioi — Tall fescue. 



Plileum praten&e — Timothy. 



Alopecurus j^^'tttensis — Meadow foxtail. 



He says these five should form the bulk of all good pastures on good soil, 

 either for sheep or cattle. The most valuable finer grasses, in his opinion, are : 



Cynosuriis cristatus — Crested dogstail. 



Festuca duriuscula — Hard fescue. 



Poa triviaUs — Kough meadow grass. 



Agrostis stolomfera — Fiorin. 



Festuca ovina — Sheep's fescue. 



Avena Jiavescens — Golden oat grass. 



In much smaller proportion he would use permanent red clover, or cow 

 grass, alsike, and white clover. He would always put in some yarrow. "All 

 rye grasses, or nearly all, die out after once seeding." He omits sweet vernal 

 altogether. 



What is best for each of the various portions of the United States probably 

 no one yet knows. We are trying to find out. For the moister portions of the 

 north the above-named list seems to be a good one, with, probably, this modi- 

 fication : Place 2W a pratensis, June grass or Kentucky blue grass, in place of 

 jioa trivialis, and agrostis vulgaris, red top, in place of agrostis stolonifera, and 

 for the drier portions of our country, to the coarser grasses add arrhenatherum 

 avenaceujn, tall oat grass. 



