PERENNIAL FORAGE GRASSES IO3 



quite variable, but Stebler gives the average number of seeds per pound for 

 Italian rye grass 285,000, and for perennial rye grass 336,000. About 50 

 pounds of seed are sown per acre when sown alone, but usually perennial 

 rye grass is sown in mixtures, not to exceed 10 per cent, of the whole being 

 recommended. The above statement is for European, and especially English, 

 conditions. Where tested in America, the yield of forage has been too small 

 to make either species valuable. 1 



Practicums 



110. EQUIPMENT FOR THE STUDY OF GRASSES AND OTHER FORAGE CROPS. 

 The equipment for teaching grasses and forage crops should consist of the 

 following materials: 



1. A grass nursery consisting of at least 50 individual plants of each of the 

 species it is desired to study. These should be started in small pots in the 

 greenhouse and planted in rows 5 feet apart, with the plants 40 inches apart 

 in the rows. There should be not less than two rows nor more than three 

 to each plat or species and every third or fourth plat should be planted to 

 some standard plant, like timothy for the grasses and red clover for the 

 legumes, for purposes of comparison. This nursery serves as a place where 

 students may study the gross characters of the different species and their 

 habits of growth. No other kind of instruction can fully take the place of 

 this field study. The information to be obtained will be valuable to the 

 instructor as well as to the student. The nursery also serves to furnish fresh 

 specimens annually for indoor study, a very essential feature of successful 

 laboratory instruction. 



2. Every student should be furnished with a bundle of each species to be 

 studied. Each bundle should be the complete product of a single plant from 

 the grass nursery gathered when seeds are well formed but before the plant 

 has become fully ripe. By this means the student will be enabled to judge 

 of the relative possible production of single plants of the different species. 



3. Each student should be furnished with a pressed and mounted specimen 

 of each species gathered at the time of full bloom. These should be placed 

 upon jute tag board, 120 pounds to the ream, 22x28 inches. The specimens 

 may be sewed on the paper or fastened with adhesive cloth. 



4. The laboratory should contain a full collection of seeds of the plants 

 to be studied, as well as seeds of related economic plants and weed seeds 

 commonly occurring in commercial seeds. (See practicum on seed testing.) 

 (115) 



5. Laboratory desks with water and gas may be arranged with five-foot 

 frontage for each student and 30 inches deep by 30 inches high. Two thirty- 

 inch drawers and cupboards on either side of the knee space may serve for 

 holding mounted specimens, the smaller bundles, and apparatus. The larger 



1 For detailed account of the rye grasses, see Stebler and Schroter: The 

 Best Forage Plants, pp. 20-30. 



