GRASSES. 135 



Stock. It gives a bite earlier than almost any other grass, is 

 permanent, will bear close and constant cropping, stands severe 

 drought, and, when cut, will in a week give a good bite to stock. 

 It is therefore admirable as a permanent pasture grass. It blos- 

 soms with clover, gives a very large proportion of hay, grows 

 a speedy and luxuriant aftermath, and is well adapted for per- 

 manent meadow wdth clover. It is inclined to grow in tufts, to 

 prevent which it should be harrowed and rolled in the spring , 

 and some other grasses should always be sown with it. 



Meadow Spear Grass is recommended as a mixiure with 

 other pasture grasses in moist pastures. 



Kentucky Blue Grass — scientific name, Poa-pratensis ; com- 

 mon names, Green Meadow Grass, June Grass, Common 

 Spear Grass, etc. Early, productive, nutritious, and palatable. 

 This is one of our valuable pasture grasses, on soils containing 

 limestone. It endures the cold, but is liable to be parched in 

 droughts. It requires two or three years to arrive at perfection, 

 and is therefore adapted only for permanent growth. It makes 

 a very choice hay, but the crop is never large. It should be 

 cut just before the seeds ripen. It should not be closely crop- 

 ped, as it starts slowly. Blue, or Wire Grass [Poa Gompressa) 

 is a more valuable variety of the same genus as the above, so 

 hardy as to flourish on sandy, hard, or rocky soils; not very 

 productive, but yielding a very large per cent, of nutritive mat- 

 ter in proportion to its bulk. It is greatly relished by al! 

 grazing animals, and is especially valuable in producing an 

 abundant flow of milk. It should always form one in any mix- 

 ture of pasture grasses on dry rocky knolls. Annual Spear 

 Grass is a very common pasture grass, flowering through the 

 whole season, and furnishing an early bite, and continual feed, 

 except in very dry seasons, when it becomes parched. Rough- 

 Stalk Meadow Grass. Productive, permanent, not as nutri- 



