130 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



19. Have you any experience in irrigating mowing or pasture lands, 

 and if so, what is the result? 



20. Do you prefer to salt your hay when putting into the barn, and 

 if so, what quantity do you use, per ton ? 



21. What do you consider the best mode of destroying couch or 

 twitch grass ? 



22. What is the best mode of destroying the white weed or ox-eye 

 daisy ? 



23. Will you give any other details not suggested by the above, 

 which, in your opinion, may be considered important, in regard to this 

 crop, and particularly if you have experimented with any varieties of 

 grass not in general cultivation, such as lucerne or alfalfa, rye grass, 

 brome grass, Kentucky blue grass, &c., will you state the results as 

 fully as possible ? If you have any varieties of grass found to be 

 valuable but not in general cultivation, the names of which are not 

 known to you, will you send them to this office where the names will 

 be given ? 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



CHARLES L. FLINT, 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. 



I am indebted to the kindness of many enterprising and 

 intelligent farmers for full and valiiable answers from more 

 than two hundred towns in the State, and these alone would 

 make a valuable volume of themselves. I can, of course, do 

 no more than extract fi'om them as freely as space will permit, 

 which I shall do at greater length in the subsequent sections. 



No crop, perhaps, is more dependent on the seasons than the 

 grasses. Every farmer knows that a moist spring, with rains 

 evenly distributed over the months of April, May and June, 

 will insure him the most luxuriant crops of grass and hay ; and 

 he knows, also, that a dry, cold spring is fatal to their rapid and 

 healthy development, and that he must, in such a spring, expect 

 a comparatively small crop. These and many similar facts are 

 familiar to the commonest practical observation. 



It has also been found by observation that the grasses will 

 vegetate when the temperature of the air is above the freezing 

 point of water, 32° Fahrenheit, provided the temperature of 

 the soil ranges from 35° to 40,° while a lower temperature 

 checks their growth. Vegetation, at temperatures higher than 

 these, depends much on the amount of moisture and heat, both 



