KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS. 87 



a similar condition. After these may be placed loam 

 soils, giving- the precedence of course to clay loams, 

 rather than to sandy loams. The humns soils of the 

 western prairies, originally devoid of timber, cannot 

 be said to be possessed of the highest adaptation for 

 blue grass. On the other hand the adaptation of these 

 is not low. It is true, nevertheless, that ordinaril}' 

 blue grass does not make in these that thick, close, dense 

 growth that it makes in clay loam soils, nor will it with- 

 stand vicissitude so well. This explains, in part at 

 least, the greater difficulty in maintaining excellent blue 

 grass lawns in cities built on purely prairie humus 

 soils. On the soils of the far w^est volcanic in their 

 origin, blue grass will grow well where moisture is suffi- 

 ciently present, but in much of the area covered bv 

 these soils, water is w^anting in that degree which hin- 

 ders seriously the growth of the grass. 



The degree of the adaptation on muck lands for grow- 

 ing blue grass depends much on the nature of the muck 

 and on what lies beneath it. If the muck is consider- 

 ably mixed with soil washed down from higher land, 

 and if at the same time it is underlaid with clay, other 

 conditions being correct, blue gi-ass will gTow admir- 

 ably. On the other hand, if the muck is chiefly or en- 

 tirely composed of vegetable matter so little reduced 

 that many of the characteristics of peat appertain to 

 it, its adaptation to the growth of blue grass will be 

 considerably lessened. If it is underlaid with quick 

 sand, the degree of the adaptation will be still further 

 lessened. 



In peat soils the adaptation for blue grass is lowei 



