AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 163 



after it is ripe, but may be cut any time from July to October. It is 

 represented as yielding heavy crops ; grows about three feet high ; and 

 is essentially fine in the stalk with abundance of leaf, flower, and seed. 

 Indeed, it appears to be the best American grass for damp soils yet 

 known, and is worthy of very extensive culture. It is found to succeed 

 bast in drained marshes, which can be overflowed for two or three weeks 

 in the spring and winter. When sown in such situations the land should 

 be plowed, and between two and three bushels of seed harrowed in, 

 with or without a grain crop. It may, however, be sown in lands too 

 wet to plow, though yielding in such places an inferior crop; and it 

 would be well to mix the two last species () and (c) with it. (Dr. H, 

 Wkcatlandin Farmer s Companion, vol. ii, p. 5.) (e,) Is or has been 

 abundant in all the Northern States, coming up immediately after the 

 forests have been cut down, though it is now said to fail in the older 

 Eastern States. It belongs to dry soils, and forms a thick, though shal 

 low sod, and excellent pasture, especially for sheep. In heavy timber 

 ed clay soils it is generally mixed with the indigenous white clover. 

 ( Tr &amp;gt;folium repens.) The stalks or culms are short and naked, the leaves 

 reclining partially on the ground, and it is only when peculiarly luxuri 

 ant that it is worth cutting for hay. It is found, however, in all old 

 meadows where the soil is adapted to it. It is rarely, if ever, sown, 

 though the seed may be collected without difficulty. It dries up after 

 flowering in June, but in the damp climate of England, it appears to 

 grow more luxuriantly. &quot;At the time of flowering, the produce on an 

 acre is 10,209 Ibs., when ripe 8,507 Ibs., and the latterraath (aftergrass&quot;) 

 is 4,083 Ibs., and bears nearly an equal value with the ripe crop.&quot; 



(/,) Is the well known Kentucky Blue Grass, so famous as pasture. 

 It much resembles the last, but is of a deep color, with a bluish hue, and 

 is better adapted for making hay. The late Hon. Henry Clay informed 

 the writer that when he first went to Lexington, Ky., that county was 

 covered with cane-brakes, the trees standing at distant intervals ; and 

 as soon as the cane was destroyed the blue-grass appeared. It is said 

 to be confined to a peculiar geological formation, one of the lower lime- 

 rocks of the great western coal field ; and that the underlying rocks 

 can be distinctly traced both in Kentucky and Ohio by the existence of 

 this grass. If this proves to be everywhere the case, as present circum 

 stances incline us to believe, this grass must be considered as strictly 

 local in its habitat. The seed may be purchased at the Cincinnati seed 

 stores. 



(g,} According to Prof. Gray, this grass is not a native of America, 



