208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



me to add a word or two to what he has said concerning 

 some of the crops he has mentioned. Concerning the varie- 

 ties of grass of which he has spoken, I should agree with 

 him in general in his estimate of their worth, — I am speak- 

 ing now of the true grasses. I want to call attention to one 

 point, doubtless well known to him, but which he did not 

 mention ; and that is, the difficulty in getting good seed of 

 the uncommon kinds of grass. That is one of the chief 

 obstacles to the extension of their use. One of the trustees 

 of the college recommended a seedsman to me as a man of 

 rather unusual reputation for honesty, and I sent to him for 

 some orchard grass seed. Almost all the seed was chess 

 and worthless weeds. This man did not mean to cheat me, 

 I know, for he did not gain anything. There are a great 

 many seeds that resemble the orchard grass seed in size and 

 general appearance, concerning which seedsmen themselves 

 undoubtedly could testify. I think you usually get the rye 

 grasses true to name, because they are very productive of 

 seed. The seedsmen can make a profit on them. Orchard 

 grass seeds rather sparingly ; it has not much seed, so there 

 is a tendency to fraud in this kind of seed. 



The English rye grass, of which he spoke, seems to be 

 a very good grass the first year, but it is not a grass which I 

 would recommend to you for the reason that it is not hardy. 

 It is not likely to last more than a year or so. 



Italian rye grass is, as a rule, still more short-lived. It 

 may be of possible value to use in the same way that we 

 use oats, — to cut as a forage crop for one year. There is 

 a good deal of evidence in our experience to show that, if 

 you seed good land to this grass in the latter part of July 

 or any time up to the middle of August, you will get a 

 good heavy crop of valuable hay which you can cut prob- 

 ably before the middle of June, — from the first to the 

 middle of June. But, after having cut this grass one year, 

 there is great danger that it may die out before another 

 year. 



Concerning mixtures of seeds, I should agree with the 

 position taken by the speaker in almost all points. I do 

 not think we should limit the number of varieties quite so 

 narrowly. I should put in a few more. 



