352 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



nutritive qualities overweigliiuj? all the disadvantages. of its growth. 

 Whichever party may be right, it is i)roper that farmers should be ac- 

 quainted with it in order to know how to treat it, and hence our figure 

 and description. It forma a dense sod by means of its far-reaching 

 creeping rhizomas or rootstalks, which have short joints, and root tena- 

 ciously at every joint. 



It has an abundance of foliage, and sends up a flowering culm, 2 to 3 

 feet high, which is terminated by a close, narrow spike of flowers from 



3 to 6 inches long. This spike consists of a succession of closely set 

 spikelets, one at each joint of the rachis, and placed flatwise with the 

 side against the stalk. Each spikelet contains several (3 to 8) flowers, 

 with a pair of nearly equal and opposite, 5 to 7 nerved glumes at the 

 base. These glumes are usually acutely pointed and sometimes short 

 awned. The lower palet of each flower is convex on the back and 

 pointed or awned at the tip; the upper palet flattened and bristly 

 fringed on the margins. There are many forms or varieties of tliis grass. 

 In the Eastern States it is supposed to be introduced, but on the arid 

 plains of the West it is undoubtedly indigenous, and in many plac^ea 

 there it is the most common grass. In the typical form the loaves are 

 flat, but in the Western varieties the leaves are frequently involute or 

 rolled together in a cylindrical form. 



Hon. J. S. Gould, in writing of this grass, says : 



The fanners of the United States unite in one continuous howl of execration against 

 this grass, and it seems strange, when every man's hand is against it, ihat it is not 

 exterminated. Yet we could never really satisfy ourselves that its presence in mead- 

 ows and pastures was such an unmitigated curse. Inlands where alternate husbandry 

 is i)racticed, it must be admitted to be an evil of great magnitude. Its hardiness is 

 guch, and its rapidity of growth is so great, that it springs up much more rapidly than 

 any other crop that can be planted and chokes it. Still it has many virtues. It is per- 

 fectly cosmopolitan in its habits. It is found in all sorts of soils and climates. Its 

 creeping roots are succulent, sweet, and very nutritive, and are greedily devoured by 

 horses and cows. 



Having the testimony, pro and con., every farmer must decide for him- 

 self as to the cultivation of this grass. Its very persistence and hardi- 

 ness is greatly in its favor incases where land is wanted for a permanent 

 pasture. 



Mr. Richard Gaines, of Colorado Springs, Colo., sent specimens of the 

 Western form of the species, and says : 



We think this is the best grass grown, superior to timothy or clover. We call it 

 bhie stem or blue joint ; no richer hay can be made from anything known. 



(See plate VIII.) 



Bromus secalinus — Chess or Cheat. 



We introduce this gra.ss, not to recommend its cultivation, but to 

 familiai-ize those interested with its apjiearance and characters. Many 

 farmers know it well, as it occurs in their wheat fields. It is an old tra- 

 dition, which some farmers stUl cling to, that chess is a degenerated 

 wheat j that the action of frost and other causes occasion the deteriora- 

 tion, whereas the truth undoubtedly is that chess-seed was either in the 

 laud or in the seed vsown, and being more hardy than wheat it sui-vived 

 the frost and took possession of the ground. Some years ago this grass 

 had a temporary ])oi)ularity under the name of Wdlard's Brome grass, 

 but it was soon abandoned when brought into competition with better 

 grasses. 



It has a stout upright culm, 2 to 3 feet high, the panicle being from 



4 to G inches long, rather epreading, and the large spikelets somewhat 



