1847.] The Grasses. 43 



Making the same into hay, and overhauling, . . . 1 50 

 Cutting, making, and hauling hay of second crop, . 2 00 

 Interest on value of land, 4 87^ 



$10 871 



leaving a nett profit from an acre and a quarter, of $58.12|. 



To save the seed the tops should be cut off by a careful cradler, 

 tied in small bundles, and put in shocks, and after standing in the 

 field eight or ten days until it is dried, it should be hauled into 

 the barn and threshed out with a fiail immediately. If there be 

 a large quantity of seed, it should then be spread on the barn floor 

 to prevent its burning in the heap, and destroying the vitality of 

 the seed. When placed in the mow before threshing, it is liable 

 to heat, and render the seed worthless. After a little practice it is 

 said that the cradler can catch with his left hand the portions cut 

 by the scythe, and place them as he advances, after which double 

 swaths should be sown of the under grass at suitable intervals, or 

 the whole field may be mown, upon which the seed sheaves may 

 be shocked. The seed is very light, weighing fifteen or sixteen 

 pounds to the bushel. If sown with clover, one bushel to eight 

 or ten quarts of clover seed, is the proper quantity to sow upon 

 an acre. When sown alone, two bushels are required. For pas- 

 ture we think this grass decidedly superior to timothy, but when 

 a regular system of rotation of crops is practised, and the ground 

 is plowed every three or four years it may not be as profitable, but 

 the oichard grass should occupy a large portion of all permanent 

 pastures. W'e are pretty confident that it would succeed well at 

 the south; it is well calculated to withstand a drouth, flourishes 

 well on dry upland or in shaded situations. Elliott says it has 

 become naturalized on James Island, near Charleston, South Car- 

 olina, where it attains the height of from two to three feet. In 

 this vicinity the past summer we noticed some stalks of it at least 

 five feet high. 



This is the only species known to botanists in this country; in 

 England there are four other species. The genus is diffused over 

 mi(klle and southern Europe, northern Africa and Asia. 



Pea prafensis, (plate 1, fig. 4..) Spear grass, meadow gi'ass, 

 Kentucky blue grass. This grass is a native of Europe, but it 

 has become extensively naturalized in the United States, being 

 common in large portions of the northern and western states, ex- 

 tending through the states on the Atlantic coast as far south as 

 the neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, where Elliott 

 remarks that it grows to the height of eighteen inches, and in 

 continuation he says it is "a fine winter grass, remarkable for its 

 deep green color and soft succulent leaves. As it bears the sum- 

 mer heats in close, rich soils, it wants only size to render it a 

 valuable acquisition to the farmer." It is a perennial, and aa the 



