4fi FAKMER'S BOOK OF GRASSES 



To make good hay and the largest yield, this grass must be 

 mowed from three to five times every summer. Thus briers, 

 broom grass and other weeds are also repressed and prevented 

 from seeding, multiplying and ruining the meadow. Properly 

 managed this grass grows from ten to fifteen inches high. 



It may be known from other grasses similar in appearance; 

 when in bloom by the stem bearing at the top from three to five 

 digitate spikes ; and at all times by having two leaves to each 

 joint, frequently three and sometimes four ; while no other grass 

 of like appearance has more than one leaf to the joint. The 

 sheaths of the alternating leaves are so close-fitting and project 

 one beyond another in such a way that unless these are stripped 

 off one would think there was a joint to each leaf. 



Propagation. This grass having but one fertile flower to each 

 spikelet and one flower in a hundred, a thousand, or million 

 perhaps maturing seed in this country; trying to save the min- 

 ute seed from it would be as bootless as seeking "a grain of 

 wheat in a bushel of chaff," or "a needle in the hay stack." I 

 am convinced and have long insisted that it matures some seed ; 

 and there are many facts tending to establish this opinion. But 

 these seed are so few, however, that practically they art 4 agri- 

 culturally as if they were not. Hence we have no means with- 

 in our own country of propagating it except by cuttings of tlu 1 

 underground stems and the superficial runners. 



These may be prepared by taking up the sod of any conve- 

 nient size with a thickness of about two inches of soil adhering. 

 Turn the pieces grass side down and with a sharp spade cut 

 rapidly through the sod two ways so as to make pieces one or 

 two inches square. Set the pieces right side up in the intersect- 

 ions of small shallow furrows made two feet apart each way 

 with a coulter or narrow opener, on the previously prepared 

 land. The soil may be adjusted to the pieces by means of the 

 hoe or by a very light furrow from a narrow shovel. With a 

 few light plowings the land will soon be fully occupied by the 

 grass. Some prefer washing all the soil from the sods and then 

 passing them through a cutting box. The pieces are then scat- 

 tered over the prepared land and plowed in. In either plan af- 

 ter planting, passing a roller over the ground will benefit. 



Destroying. 1st., Keep stock from it and leave it alone. 

 Broom grass, briers, and weeds in a few years will destroy it. 

 This plan is not good farming. 2nd., It roots two inches deep. 

 When expecting a drought in summer, turn up the soil from a 

 depth of two inches; best turned edgewise and not upside down; 

 after a tew days' drying run a toothed rotary harrow over sev- 

 eral times in every direction. Thus most of the soil will be 



