22 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



of terminal buds, and the continual formation of new 

 buds at the tips or sides of branches. Grasses grow from 

 the lower ends of their leaves or blades; thus, you may 

 cut off the grass blades as often as you like and they will 

 again be pushed up from below. This curious fact is of 

 the greatest value, as it makes possible the pasturing of 

 grasses with no injury to them. Clovers fed down close 

 yield only a fraction of their normal growth, since they 

 can not after being bitten off grow again till new buds 

 are formed, while grasses bitten off will, if there is mois- 

 ture and warmth and fertility under them, at once push 

 up the bitten blades high enough to afford a second bite, 

 and this they will do indefinitely. 



HOW GRASSES THICKEN. 



Grasses tend to increase by means of their spreading 

 underground rootstocks. These rootstocks are not true 

 roots, but are in reality underground stems. Some grass- 

 es are very wonderful in their development of under- 

 ground stems, providing very stout, stiff, powerful root- 

 stocks armed with hard, sharp points able to penetrate 

 almost anything. It is not unusual to see a root of quack 

 grass penetrate entirely through a potato. A large num- 

 ber of grasses have these creeping underground stems, 

 Kentucky bluegrass, brome grass, redtop, and Bermuda 

 grass being good examples. There are other grasses that 

 tend always to remain in clumps, as the fescue grasses, 

 timothy, orchard grass, and western bunch grass. Even 

 these stooling grasses increase, but the new offshoots are 

 always sent up close to the parent stem. 



This tendency of grasses to thicken themselves makes 



