51 



drawback, which such farmers and seedsmen dwell on so much, can 

 be greatly reduced or taken away by following the hints given above. 



It is also a useful grass for 2 or 3 years' lay in connection with 

 Ryegrasses, Timothy and Clovers. Except a very few spikes, which 

 may occasionally be seen, it does not produce many stalks the 

 first year. But it does give at any rate a fair quantity of foliage. 

 It is the Ryegrasses, Timothy and Clovers which 

 predominate then. The second year, however, it gets its full force, 

 and the plants may then be seen in profusion in the field, where 

 the Ryegrasses have been greatly reduced and the Clovers are 

 likewise fewer then. 



For such a short duration it, however, causes this inconvenience 

 to the farmer who, after the second or third year desires to plough 

 the field up again, that it will cost him a good deal of labour to 

 turn the same into good condition again, the plants having by 

 then made very strong, deep-going clusters of roots, which require 

 some intense labour to be cut to pieces and destroyed. 



This grass is a great favorite in the United States both for hay 

 and pasture. It has been found quite hardy and does well every- 

 where. It flowers with Red clover and is generally used in that 

 conjunction. As said before, much care is necessary to cut just 

 before maturity to get the best of the sweetness of the plant either 

 dry or cured. It has been found to stand constant cropping better 

 than any other of the recognized pasture-grasses. Farmers and 

 seedsmen have to thank Henderson and Crozier to a great extent 

 for enlightening them on the merits of this grass during the past 

 twenty years. 



It is entirely unsuited for lawns, however, on account of its 

 broad leaves and its coarse, tufty habit. 



Festuca duri uscula (Hard Fescue). A sub-variety of F e s t u c a 

 o v i n a (Sheep's Fescue) and a 20 to 25 inches high growing, small 

 even tuft-forming grass with narrow blades and still finer bottom- 

 leaves of a deep-green colour. It is being chiefly used as a lawn- 

 grass and forms, on account of its cheapness, as a rule, the bulk 

 in mixtures for that purpose. It thrives on both middling and 

 lighter soils and is, as will be clear from the foregoing, a very 

 useful grass for lawns, especially on such soils where the more 

 valuable varieties, like Cynosurus cristatus (Creded Dogstail) 

 would do well only with a satisfactory rainfall, a thing of which 

 one is seldom sure. 



