200 WHY GRASSES ARE NOT BETTER KNOWN. 



twenty other species; much less do they understand the peculiar 

 properties and the relative values of the different species. 



" Not long ago," says G-ould, "we noticed a large tract of 

 Lyme grass, Elymus villosus, growing on the banks of a rivulet. 

 We asked the owner of the land, who had lived on it over thirty 

 years, whether his cattle relished it? He told us he did not 

 know ; he had never noticed it, and could not tell whether the 

 cattle would eat it or not. He had seen it growing there all the 

 time in great abundance, but never knew its name, never in- 

 quired what it was, nor what it was good for. Meadow fescue, 

 Festuca pratensis, is a very common grass in the counties border- 

 ing on the Hudson river, constituting about one-fifteenth of the 

 crop on the meadows. When it first came in flower this year we 

 asked the first six farmers that we met with what they called it. 

 Not one of them could name it ; they were not quite sure that they 

 had it on their farms ; they had something that looked like it, 

 but they were not sure that it was the same. Two of them 

 thought that it was June grass. The difference between the two 

 is so marked that an intelligent farmer should no more confound 

 them than he should confound a horse and a cow." 



Why Grasses are Not Better Known. Improvements in 

 agriculture have always advanced slowly, with the exception of 

 farm implements, which have not generally been invented by 

 farmers, but by mechanics. Probably no class of men adhere 

 more tenaciously to old practices than the farmers. They have 

 had great respect for fashion and the tradition of their fathers. 



Grasses have often been recommended under wrong names, or 

 from a very limited observation, or from selfish motives. Per- 

 haps the seed was poor and failed to grow. The farmer is 

 puzzled and returns to his old ways. 



The grasses form an exceedingly natural family, and for this 

 very reason it is difficult for a beginner to readily distinguish 

 individual differences. A certain grass varies much in different 



