208 



FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



peculiar to the marshes being particularly well adapted for packing 

 purposes, much better than the hay of the uplands. The better 

 quality of marsh or salt hay makes very good feed for growing stock, 

 but possesses little fattening value. Some of the grasses composing 

 the hay impart a disagreeable flavor to the milk or butter of cows 

 feeding upon it. The grasses of the seacoast may be divided into 

 three classes: Those growing in the sands along the shore, those 

 upon the marshes proper, and those upon the sandy and waste lands 

 bordering the marshes. To the first class belong beach or marram 

 grass and a few others to some extent valuable for holding drifting 

 sands. 



A sample of salt hay, collected near Pine Point, Me., in the 

 early part of August and made up of a variety of grasses, including 

 black grass, fox grass, and browntop, analyzed as follows : Moisture, 

 8.04 per cent; ether extract, 5.44; fiber, 27.25; ash, 5.13; nitrogen, 

 0.94; nitrogen as albuminoids, 5.88. 



The following table of analyses of the more important grasses 

 here mentioned with those of the common meadow grasses inserted 

 for comparison is taken from the annual report of the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station for 1889. page 240. The samples 

 analyzed were gathered just before or at the time of blooming. 



The average of numerous analyses of the ash of some of these 

 grasses shows that 5 tons of hay made from them contain as much 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash as is contained in a full crop of 

 corn, including stover, from an acre of land. The average amount 

 of salt contained in a ton of hay, according to the investigation at 

 the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, was 54 pounds. 

 (Y. B. 1895.) 



The marsh grass near the great inland lakes, large rivers and 

 as it may be found in many other localities throughout the country, 

 is also harvested to a great extent in about the same manner as the 

 above. 



TAME HAY AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



According to the census report, 75 per cent of the tame hay 

 (not including alfalfa, clover, and grain cut green for hay) in the 

 United States is produced in ten States. For all practical purposes, 

 the "other tame grasses" cut for hay referred to in the report may 

 be regarded as timothy, especially in the northeastern part of the 



