650 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



dual change takes place a few days before the 

 worms make their appearance, whicli is mani- 

 fested by changes in the color of ihe eggs. 



The use o( charcoal I consider very imporlant. 

 It absorbs the vvaier proceeding from the melting 

 ice, and also prevents either a sudden rise or fall 

 of temperature. For this opinion we have sci- 

 entific authority of high respectability. 



" Charcoal by long exposure to the atmosphere 

 absorbs one-twentieth of its weight, three-fourths 

 of which are water." * * # « 



"Charcoal is a very slow conductor of caloric. 

 The experiments of Guyton have determined that 

 caloric is conveyed through charcoal more slowly 

 than through sand, in the proportion of three to 

 two. Hence powdered charcoal may be advan- 

 tageously employed, to surround substances which 

 are to be kept cool in a warm atmosphere ; and 

 also (o confine the caloric of heated bodies." — 

 (Henrtfs Elemerds of Chemistry, vol. i., p. 275.) 

 _ My experience accords substantially with these 

 views. When charcoal has been used the papers 

 containing the eg<?s have unifornily come out dry, 

 but when dispensed with, they have as unilbrmly 

 come out damp, and in some instances even viet. 

 Layton Y. Atkins. 



Stafford Co., Va., November, 1840. 



P. S. The space between the top of the large 

 box and the canister containing the eggs is not 

 filled with charcoal or any other substance, but is 

 left empty, in order that a gradual renewal of the 

 air may lake place. 



KEKTUCKY BLUE-GRASS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Frankfort, Ky., Oct. 22, 1840. 



Dear Sir : — I observed the inquiry of" a Far- 

 mer" in your September number, in relerence to 

 Kentucky blue-grass, and your request for infor- 

 mation from Judge Kennedy, of Tennessee, or 

 myself You are perlectiy correct, in supposing 

 that Kentucky blue-grass is not the same grass 

 known by the same name in Virginia. I have 

 heard many Virginians denounce, like yourself, 

 the blue-grass of your state, as an abominable 

 pest o.f the corn-field. I have no personal acquain- 

 tance with the plant. A native of the Old Do- 

 minion had the goodness to bring out a box ol' it 

 for me, but it never come to hand. Perhaps 1 

 ought to be thankful, and probably you will con- 

 gratulate me, on the failure of the conveyance. 

 Another Virginian threatened, if it arrived, to have 

 me indicted for the introduction of a horrible nui- 

 sance. 



The blue-grass of Kentucky, which is the pre- 

 dominant grass of our unrivalled pastures, is the 

 poa pratensis of botanists; not the poa compressa 

 described in England by the popular name of 

 blue-grass. Our blue-grass has many synonyms 

 — green-sward, spear-grass, June-grass, yard- 

 grass, great or smooth stalked meadow grass, &c. 



The following description is from the Gardener's 

 Dictionary : 



•' Poa pratensis — smooth stalked or great mea- 

 dow-grass — panicle diffused, spikelets four flower- 

 ed, gluraes lanceolate, five nerved, connected by a 

 vilJuB, stipule abbreviated, blunt ; root perennial, 



creeping by runners, easily penetrating into the 

 earth and crevices ol'walls. Culm upright, smooth, 

 scarce percepiibly striated, a loot or eighteen 

 inches [in Kentucky often three feef] in l:eiizht. 

 Leaves smooth, of a dark green color, sometimes 

 jrlaurous or bluish, heeled, blumish, spreadini;. 

 Sheathes, the length of the leaves, striated, smooth. 

 Stipulas, short, blunt. Panicle elongated, upright, 

 very much branched, rugged; branches aliernaiely 

 decompounded, when in Hower spreadini: horizon- 

 tally. Spikelets smaller than those of the p^>a 

 compressa, oval, lour flowered, often five, some- 

 times only two flowered, flattened on each side, 

 green or sometimes purple. Calycine glumes 

 sharp, rugged on the back, a little unequal, three 

 nerved. Florets bluntish, five nerved, scaricose at 

 the tip, rugged on the back, connected at the base 

 by numerous very long complicated villose hairs, 

 the inner valves somewhat pubescent at the edge. 

 Filaments longer than the glumes, anthers lorked 

 at each end. Styles branched to the bottom. 

 Nectary, two little glumes at the base of the germ ; 

 seed angular pointed." 



You will be able to judge, from this de^criplion, 

 wheiher the resemblance of the two grasses ex- 

 tends beyond that of their popular names. It ia 

 certainly a very great inconvenience that the 

 popular nomenclature of the grasses is so confused 

 and contradictory ; and he who shall write a bo- 

 tanic description of then!, appending all the popular 

 names civen to each species, in such a manner as 

 to enable the reader to distinguish them readily, 

 will have performed a very useful and acceptable 

 service to the agricultural community. 



I cannot venture to say whether it would be 

 advisable to sow blue-grass on your marled lands, 

 with the view of smothering or destroying that 

 great pest, wire irrass. I can only offer conjectural 

 opinions. It delights in calcareous soils ; and I 

 am not confident that sowing it on silicious soils 

 would not prove an utter failure. I am informed 

 of only two experiments made with it in the sili- 

 cious soils of Kentucky, outside the great lime- 

 stone region. One of them, in the eastern part of 

 the state, was a sad failure, the grass refusing to 

 form a close turf and only showing itself in occa- 

 sional tussocks or tufts. The other, in the south- 

 eastern part of the state, was reported as highly 

 successful, but although the accounts represented 

 the soil aa wholly silicious and did not slate the 

 presence of lime. I cannot but believe it contain- 

 ed some portion of calcareous earth. ( have no 

 reasonable grounds of doubt that, on your tho- 

 roughly marled lands, Kentucky blue-grass would 

 succeed well. But the entire success of the ex- 

 periment, I imagine, would depend, in no small 

 degree, on the thorough spreading and incorpo- 

 ration of the marl or other calcareous matter em- 

 ployed. Otherwise, I should fear the grass would 

 not form an entire covering of close turf. In our 

 pastured, blue-grass extirpates wire grass, and, 

 indeed, ultimately expels every other plant, and 

 maintains the occupancy. I know nothing that 

 can maintain a long and vigorous existence with 

 it, except iron-weeds or devil's bit, a tall weed 

 which infests our pastures, and which probably 

 some of our farmers would be willing to swop 

 even for your blue- grass. 



1 am favored with a letter from a Virginia friend, 

 for the last ten yeard a resident and practical 

 farmer in Kentucky, no less distinguished by hia 



