16 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



eral stalks, as will the sorghums, millets and all those 

 classes of large grasses. Some species send out long 

 trailing stems or runners lying flat on the earth and tak- 

 ing root at each joint. Some, like the quack grass (Agro- 

 pyrum repens), fill the soil with a mass of roots that will 

 each send up new stems and if dragged to a fresh spot 

 will there make a new center of growth. 



The number of species of grasses is enormous, yet we 

 have adopted into our system of agriculture but a few 

 sorts. In part that is due to the ease or difficulty of 

 seeding grasses. Timothy grass, for example, is so easily 

 sown and the seed so easily gathered, that it is soonest 

 set of any, and has become the standard hay grass of 

 northern climes. In some regions Kentucky bluegrass is 

 the almost universal pasture grass because it comes in of 

 itself; in other regions with different soil (poor and 

 lacking in lime) redtop has possession. Naturally the 

 farmer follows the line of least resistance, yet it is by no 

 means certain that he has adopted into his agriculture all 

 the best grasses that nature has provided. 



On the mountains and hills of Utah, for instance, once 

 grew wild bunch grasses that would keep cattle fat all 

 winter, standing dry, yellow and cured on their stems. 

 We have not yet learned to use that bunch grass in cul- 

 tivation; maybe we shall never learn it. In Ohio the 

 wild grass of the open plain, blue joint (Calamagrostis 

 Canadensis), made far more hay to the acre than tim- 

 othy does, and I think the hay was fully as good. Some 

 day we shall do more towards using now neglected spe- 

 cies ; their seeding habit is what is now in the way. 



On the other hand, many grasses listed as useful are 



