.",02 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



according to the soil and latitude in which it grows. The plant is a light 

 -reen colour, the spikelets frequently variegated with bluish purple. 

 Flowers in June, but once a year, which recommends this for lawns. The 

 produce ordinarily is small compared with other grasses, but the herbage 

 is fine. It grows in a variety of soils, from the dryest knolls to a wet 

 meadow. It does not stand severe droughts as well as the Orchard grass. 

 It endures the frosts of winter better than all other grasses, and continues 

 luxuriant through mild winters. It requires from two to three years to 

 become well set, does not arrive at perfection as a pasture grass till the 

 sward is older than three years, hence it is not suited to alternate hus- 

 bandry, or where the land is to remain in grass only a few years and then 

 to be ploughed up. The best Blue grass is found in shaded pastures. It 

 is the first plant that puts forth its leaves and remains green if the season 

 is favourable. Early in the fall it takes a second growth and flourishes 

 vigorously until the ground freezes. Blue grass makes the sweetest and 

 best of hay. It should be cut as the seeds begin to ripen, spread well and 

 protect from rain and dews, on the second day stock and shelter and salt- 

 Blue grass is not commended to cultivate especially for hay. It is not as 

 profitable a product to merchandize as Timothy and Orchard grass. Blue 

 grass on limestone land is perpetual, if properly managed, and the perfec- 

 tion it attains in Kentucky is to be attributed to favourable soils, a tem- 

 perate climate and mild winters, all of which have contributed to make 

 Kentucky Blue grass the basis of our agricultural wealth and prosperity." 



FOWL MEADOW FALSE RED TOP (Poa serotina.) 



This grass has .been known and cultivated in the New England States 

 from an early period. It grows tall and thick, making a more soft and 

 pliable hay and better adapted for pressing and shipping off for the use of 

 horses on board, than Timoth}'. It yields well to the acre, and will not 

 spoil, although it stands beyond the common time of mowing. It must be 

 SDwn in low moist land. The cultivation of this grass seems to be prin- 

 cipally confined to the New England States, where it is considered a val- 

 uable one. Its merits consist in its thick and abundant growth on land 

 more moist than is well adapted to common upland grasses. It never 

 grows so coarse or hard but that the stalk is sweet and tender, and eaten 

 without waste. 



It should enter largely into a mixture with other grasses sown on good, 

 moist soils. 



