AND OTHER _r ORAGE PLANTS. 39 



ANALYSIS OF ASH. 



Potassium, 6.78 Sulphuric acid, 3.39 



Potassium oxide, 17.32 Phosphoric acid, 6.65 



Sodium, 1.33 Silicic acid, 39.98 



Sodium oxide, Chlorine, 8.21 



Calcium oxide, 11.95 



Magnesium oxide, 4.39 100.00 



I The analysis shows that those who esteem it as a butter pro- 

 ducing grass have good reasons for their faith. Some think it 

 also imparts a specially agreeable flavor to butter. Some say 

 their stock are fond of it and that feeding on it in 'the range' 

 they become sleek and fat. My own horses, mules, cows and 

 hogs have never seemed to like it ; and although sheep eat it 

 readily and profitably, I am obliged to confess I regard it on 

 one piece of land at least as one of the worst pests I have ever 

 had. I have mowed it from two to four feet long and made 

 pretty good hay of it; and it is easily cured. But it is difficult 

 to control and exterminate ; and I would prefer not to have it 

 on my lands, occupying the place of better kinds. 



Another species, M. Mexieana, is very similar in all respects. 

 A large area must be mowed and a huge bulk of these grasses ac- 

 cumulated to obtain a considerable weight of hay. 



The several other species are of too little agricultural value 

 to merit special notice. 



C A L A M AGROSTIS. 



C. CANADENSIS, Blue Joint Grass, grows in bogs, reclaimed 

 marshes and moist meadows in many parts of the eastern, north- 

 ern States and about lake Superior. The culms are from 3 to 5 

 feet high. On soil suited to it, its growth is rank and luxuriant 

 and it yields an immense quantity of hay. It is greedily eaten 

 by stock. I am not aware that this grass has ever been tried j 

 on any of the bogs or wet lands of the south. Our southern 

 species, C. eoarcatata, or glaucous small reed grass is rare, grows 

 in swamps and has attracted no attention, The C. arenaria, 

 beach grass, mat grass, sea-sand reeds grass, of no agricultural 

 interest directly, is yet very valuable in many parts of the world, 

 doing what King Canute could not. Only two or three feet 

 high, its roots 20 to 30 feet long, are full of tubers, strong, and 

 bind the sands and hold them against the action of winds and 

 waves and thus prevent the encroachment of the seas. It has 

 been the subject of much legislation, municipal, State and na- 

 tional, on. both sides of the Atlantic ocean ; and much property 

 has been saved by a judicious planting of this grass, in the east- 

 ern States. 



