168 AGROPYRUM REPENS, BEAUW 



country. It comes from Europe, though sonietliing very much 

 like it is common on the great western plains, where it affords an 

 excellent pasture 



The rootstocks fill the soil, and much resemble those of June 

 grass, only they are larger. The leaves near the ground much 

 resemble those of Timothy ; the stems are one to three feet high, 

 and each is terminated by a slender spike from two inches to a 

 foot in length. It seldom produces seed till the plants become 

 somewhat dwarfed or stunted by croAvding or exhaustion of the 

 soil. 



Gould tells the truth when he says: "The farmers of the 

 United States unite in one continuous howl of execration against 

 this grass." They generally dread its presence, which most of 

 them are ignorant of till it has become well established, often in 

 many places on their farms. It is a clean, sweet grass, and affords 

 much good pasture. In good soil, if not too old and crowded, it 

 Avill cut a fine crop of hay of excellent quality, not surpassed in 

 value by that of Timothy. 



The editor of the Rural New Yorker says: "It will endure 

 the seA'erest droughts of the North; it will thrive in sandy or 

 clayey soils ; it is earl}^ to appear in the spring ; it is the first to 

 carpet a field with green after it has been mown or closely 

 cropped ; it makes a compact sod for the door-yard or lawn, and 

 will become as ' velvety ' under the frequent use of the lawn- 

 mower as the bent, grasses, red top or poas. Its merits are 

 many. We do not know of any true grass about which more 

 may be said in its praise. The great fault with quack is that it 

 seems to be too much of a good thing. A field recently plowed 

 for corn next spring, which had been in grass eight years or 

 more, was nearly all quack — Timothy having disappeared en- 

 tirely, and the rest forming a small percentage of blue grass and 

 red top. The cultivation which we shall give tlie corn will prac- 

 tically subdue the quack unless the next summer should prove 



