STUDY OF PLANTS. 215 



depends upon being able to throw in the vegetable 

 growth between the other and valuable crops, without 

 the loss of time or land. To adopt it, the farmer will 

 need to observe, and become familiar with, to some ex- 

 tent, the plants on his farm ; and if he finds, by experi- 

 ment, that green manuring is effective in giving him 

 better crops at less expense, he will need to have a 

 seed-bed for many of the plants he may wish to use, 

 in order to be sure of a regular and constant supply 

 of seed. 



It will be easy to give the system of green manuring 

 a fair and complete experiment, by taking a small piece, 

 say a quarter or half an acre ; and for this purpose the 

 seeds of wild plants of the farm can be procured, grown, 

 and turned in for wheat, rye, or oats, and the result 

 noted. 



VII. LITTER GRASSES. Many of the wild grasses 

 grow with great luxuriance, and often in places very 

 convenient to the barn or the homestead ; and some of 

 them, owing to their size and abundance of leaves, are 

 admirably adapted for litter, and used as such they 

 greatly increase the manure-heap. 



A selection might be made of grasses of this descrip- 

 tion, which would produce as valuable a yield of litter 

 as the straw of some of our grain crops. The follow- 

 ing, with many others, might be suggested : 



Common Reed Grass (Phragmites communis). 

 Lyme Grass (Elymus virginicus). 

 Canadian Lyme Grass (Elymus canadensis). 

 Slender Hairy Lyme (Elymus striatus}. 

 Reed Canary Grass (Phalaris arundinacea). 



All of these grasses have been described in chapter 

 first, and their natural habitat given under each. 



