GRASSES AND CLOVER. 125 



seed very early. If sown it should be in a mixture with other 

 grasses. Its greatest value is when in flower. 



SWEET-SCENTED VERNAL GRASS. This is not a palatable or 

 nutritious grass, but it comes very early in the spring and grows 

 late in autumn, and in a mixture for pasture is of some value. 

 It derives its name from its sweetness of smell when partly 

 wilted or when crushed in the hand, and it is this, chiefly, that 

 gives the fragrance to new mown hay. It is rarely sown, but 

 comes spontaneously into fields and along roadsides. 



Of the varieties of grass named the blue-grass and orchard- 

 grass do best in the shade, and will produce heavy crops in 

 orchards and timber groves. Botanists speak of dislikes and 

 affinities among plants, and blue-grass and the locust tree seem 

 to illustrate the latter, for they grow together with no apparent 

 injury to each other. I have seen a second crop of locust trees 

 grow large enough for posts in twelve years, in a heavy blue- 

 grass sward, and our most dense groves of locust timber produce 

 about as much of this grass as the open fields. 



The length of time land should remain in grass must be 

 determined by the character of the land and the system of 

 farming pursued. On every farm there should be a permanent 

 pasture ; and, if this is seeded with a mixture of the grasses 

 recommended, those best suited to the soil will get possession 

 and become permanent. In all locations where blue-grass flour- 

 ishes it will crowd out all others, and the land will not need 

 reseeding in a generation. These pastures become more valua- 

 ble with age, and are often the most profitable lands on the farm. 

 On level plow lands, where the object of growing grass is to 

 improve the soil, as well as for hay and pasture, the period the 

 land should remain in grass will vary somewhat. In most rota- 

 tions the period will be two years, and sometimes a poor catch, 

 or the damaging of the crop by a very dry summer or an unusu- 

 ally severe winter, will make it wise to plow up the land after 

 one year. Again, a field may be so well seeded and prove so 

 productive that it will be found profitable to allow it to remain 

 in grass for a series of years. I have known timothy meadows 

 to give from four to six good crops from a single seeding. 



