gkass and clover- 69 



In addition to these, Mr. Buckley has described, in the American Journal of Science and 

 Agricuhure, about twenty kinds or species belonging to the genizs Poa. 



Manna grass, Glyceria fluitans. This grass is remarkable for its sweetish seeds. It 

 grows from four to six feet high in wet places. As cattle are very fond of it, it may be 

 profitable to cultivate it in those places where it is permanently wet and otherwise unpro- 

 ductive. Water fowls are all exceeding fond of the seeds ; and hence the margins of 

 ponds and streams may be very profitably stocked with it. Even fish are fond of the seed. 



In addition to this very brief notice of the grasses, I may allude in passing to the family 

 of Clovers y which, though not botanically grasses, are still important to cattle in many 

 instances, and often occupy the place of grasses. The red and white clover seem to be 

 distributed generally, and indeed as much so as any of the grasses proper. Their seeds 

 spring up in every new field, and ujion old fields under favorable circumstances, especially 

 where gypsum has been strewed. 



The habits of the two kinds of clover are different : the red has an upright, and some- 

 what robust stem ; the. white, a small wiry creeping stem, which becomes a pernicious 

 weed in a garden, very difficult to eradicate, inasmuch as the remains of part of a_ stem 

 with its root is sure to live and extend itself. It exhausts the soil, after a few years, of 

 the peculiar elements which it requires, and gradually disappears from the fields. In new 

 pastures it is thick and abundant, and fills the air with its perfume ; but in the, old it has 

 given place to the less nutritive but more hardy grasses. 



The clovers, as is well known, furnish important means for increasing the fertility of 

 soils. They improve the soils by their large and spreading roots. They also penetrate 

 deeply, and bring up the phosphates and other fertilizing matters to the surface. They 

 can not increase the mineral or inorganic matters, but they increase the organic. 



According to Boussingault, one acre will produce 12f cwt, of perfectly dry clover 

 roots, which is a large amount of useful matter in whatever light it is regarded ; either as a 

 production affecting the soil mechanically, or as one which acts chemically, first, in 

 abstracting the deeper nutritive materials, and afterwards leaving them diffused in the soil 

 as food for other more valuable plants for man. This is not to be regarded as new matter 

 added to the soil, but as matter transferred through the agency of this plant from points 

 inaccessible to others, and hence becoming available by a slight expense to the farmer. It 

 is this view of the subject which makes the clover crop so valuable in a specific rotation, 

 by furnishing an immense amount of nutritive matter to the wheat crop, which is in the 

 most favorable condition to promote its growth and perfection. 



Lucerne yields a much larger amount of roots, which, after the crop has remained a few 

 years, are cut up with the turf and burned. This crop is well adapted to sandy soils of 

 the Hudson river valley, and might, it is believed, profitably receive the farmer's attention. 

 It is not, however, adapted to the use of milch cows, as it imparts an unpleasant taste to 

 the milk and butter; but it is wholesome and nutritive to most kinds of stock. 



Although the grtisses and clover are spoken of as the food of cattle, either of which 

 may be employed indiscriminately for the other, still it will be shown that they differ 



