120 IRRIGATION. 



The nature of the herbage upon an irrigated meadow 

 depends greatly upon the skill with which the irrigation 

 is managed. If water is used in excess, the more valuable 

 grasses disappear and inferior ones take their place, such 

 as quack grass (Triticum repens), the spear grasses (Gly- 

 ceria aquatica), and G. fluitans and other coarse species. 

 By careful management, re-seeding, and manuring, timo- 

 thy and clover may be retained in a watered meadow, but 

 there are several grasses which are but slightly inferior to 

 timothy, and which grow abundantly and constantly, that 

 are much better adapted to this culture. These are the 

 fowl meadow grass (Poa serotina), rough-stalked meadow 

 grass (Poa trivialis), the tall meadow oat-grass, called 

 ray grass in France, (Arrenatherum avenaceum), and the 

 well-known red-top (Agrostis vulgaris). 



These grasses furnish a heavy burden of sweet, nutri- 

 tious, palatable hay, and immediately after mowing, 

 when watered, spring into a vigorous new growth. Italian 

 rye-grass (Lolium Italicum), is extensively grown upon 

 irrigated meadows in England, and yields repeated heavy 

 cuttings of forage for soiling. It has been tried here 

 without success, but not on irrigated lands. It is probable 

 that under irrigation it will be found of equal value to 

 other grasses that have already been naturalized, and are 

 known to be available, as it is the chief grass grown upon 

 the Italian water meadows, upon which it yields several 

 cuttings, equal in the aggregate to 80 or 40 tons of green 

 fodder per acre yearly. A mixture of five to seven pounds 

 each of the four varieties named, as best adapted to water- 

 ed meadows, would give a thick growth, and as some of 

 them increase from the roots, a thick permanent sod 

 would be formed, which would be in active and successive 

 growth up to October, or even later in the season. 



The undulating character of the surface of the soil 

 offers the greatest facilities for using the waters from 

 streams, both small and great, in irrigation. There are 



