40 



GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



root, that of the June grass is creeping. It flourishes in moist 

 meadows where it flowers in July. Introduced. This grass' is 

 seen in Fig. 26, while Fig. 27 represents a flower somewhat 

 magnified. 



This is a valuable grass 

 to cultivate in moist, 

 sheltered soils, possess- 

 ing very considerable nu- 

 tritive qualities, coming to 

 perfection at a desirable 

 time, and being exceed- 

 ingly relished by cattle, 

 horses and sheep. For 

 such soils it should form 

 a portion of a mixture of 

 seeds, producing, in mix- 

 ture with other grasses 

 which serve to shelter it, 

 a large yield of hay, far 

 above the average of 

 grass usually grown on 

 a similar soil. It should 

 be cut when in seed and 

 not in the flower. Seven 

 poimds of seed to the 

 acre will produce a good 

 sward. The grass loses 

 about seventy per cent, of 

 its weight in drying. Its 

 hay contains about one 

 and sixty hundredths per 

 cent, of azote, and the nu- 

 tritive qualities of the lat- 

 termath exceed very con- 

 siderably those of the crop 

 cut in the flower or in the 

 seed. 



Wood Meadow Grass, {poa nemoraUs,) is met with in Hamp- 

 shire and Berkshire counties. It grows from eighteen inches 

 to two feet high, has a perennial, creeping root, an erect stem, 



Fig. 26. Rough Stalk Meadow Grass. 



