180 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. 



give us but little information regarding the circumstances 

 under which the trial has been made. 



The majority of the results reported have fm* this reason 

 only a local value, and are to be accepted with a due allow- 

 ance for special local conditions. The fact that many of our 

 foremost practical agriculturists, on both sides of the Atlan- 

 tic, differ widely in regard to the relative and absolute merits 

 of many of our reputed grasses even, can only be reconciled 

 by assuming different local conditions of the experimenters. 



Under these circumstances it seems, for these and various 

 other reasons, advisable to point out on the present occa- 

 sion merely some general considerations which ought to 

 guide us in selecting suitable grasses for meadows and for 

 temporary grass lands, and to close subsequently this chap- 

 ter by relating some of our own results of experiments with 

 single grasses upon the fields of the State Experiment Sta- 

 tion. 



It is a well-established fact in practical farming that the 

 yield of fodder upon a given area of land is frequently 

 much larger when raising a mixture of several fodder plants 

 than when raising but one of them at a time, provided the 

 selection of the mixture is made judiciously. 



The grasses are no exception to that rule. A good 

 meadow furnishes the best illustration in this direction. In 

 studying the botanical characteristics of the grasses, with 

 reference 'to their mode of growth, we notice a more or 

 less marked difference among different species and varieties. 

 Some show decided tendency to send out, soon, numerous 

 upright shoots, bearing liberally flowers, whilst others show 

 this tendency more sparingly, and spend their vital energy 

 in the production of numerous low, knotty shoots, clinging 

 more or less closely to the ground. 



This class of grasses requires frequently from two to three 

 years after seeding before it contributes liberally to the hay 

 crop ; it furnishes meanwhile valuable pastures. As the 

 selection of suitable grasses for permanent meadows ought 

 to be made with a view of forming, within a limited number 

 of years, a close and compact sod, the last-named class of 

 grasses ought to take the lead in grass mixtures for that 

 purpose. 



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