PERENNIAL FORAGE GRASSES 



I. ORCHARD GRASS 



80. Name.- Orchard grass; cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata 

 L.). Because of its occurrence in shady places, this plant is 

 in America called orchard grass. In England and in New 

 Zealand it is universally known as cocksfoot, because of a 

 fancied resemblance of its panicle to a cock's foot. Although 

 very different in its habit of growth, it is botanically somewhat 

 closely related to the Poas and the Festucas. The two fol- 

 lowing grasses cultivated only experimentally belong to the 

 same genus. Tussock grass (D. caespitosa Forst.) is indigenous 

 to the Falkland Islands, and is characterized by its large 

 cushions of grass. It has been tried upon the seacoast of Great 

 Britain without success. Russian cocksfoot (D. altaica Besser) 

 is distinguished from common orchard grass mainly by its 

 longer culms. 



81. Description. Orchard grass is moderately deep rooted, 

 the roots extending two or more feet into the soil. The Arkansas 

 Station found in northwestern Arkansas, where orchard grass 

 thrives better than timothy, that while all the timothy roots 

 were within 12 inches of the surface 50 per cent, of orchard 

 grass roots were below that depth and 10 per cent, were below 

 20 inches in depth. 1 The plant grows in a compact raised tuft 

 and is not creeping. The culms are 18 inches to 3 feet tall, 

 and -are not abundantly supplied with leaves. The leaf blades 

 are long, sometimes two feet, broad, thick, and strongly keeled. 



1 Arkansas Sta. Bui. No. 29 (1894). 



