AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 75 



As hay it is rather hard unless cut while young. It should 

 be cut as soon as the blooms appear or earlier. It would be 

 preferable to have these grasses for grazing or green soiling, and 

 to sow better grasses for hay. 



By setting the plants in the spring two feet each way on pre- 

 pared land and cultivating ; in the fall, the seed that drop and 

 germinate and the tillers will cover the ground with a good 

 winter pasture. If it .shows any sign of exhaustion manure and 

 scarify, or plow solid in fall or winter and harrow. It will soon 

 be in full growth. 



3. E. CANADENSIS, Canada Lyme Grass. 



This perennial is probably not found native in any of the 

 southern tier of States. It is about equal in value to either of 

 the two preceding. 



Siberian Lyme Grass and Soft Lyme Grass are not found in the 

 southern States. 



4. E. ARENARIUS, Upright Sea Lyme Grass belongs to Eu- 

 rope. Sir Humphrey Davy analysing the soluble matter afford- 

 ed by this grass found that it contained a large proportion of 

 sugar, besides other nutritious matters. But it is too hard to 

 make a desirable grass for stock ; though much used mixed 

 with other grasses chopped for winter feed for cattle, in Hol- 

 land and other places. It was introduced into this country by 

 the Patent Office many years ago and planted at a number of 

 places. But jts principle use in this as in other countries is the 

 same as that of beach grass, to bind drifting sands and prevent 

 encroachments of the waves. Its long, creeping, perennial roots 

 well fit it for this purpose. 



GYMNOSTICHTJM. 



G. HYSTRIX. Bottle-brush grass differs little from the Lyme 

 Grasses, except in the absence of glumes. It is a native, peren- 

 nial, and a good forage plant. The spike, three to six inches 

 long, when ripe resembles a bottle brush. The grass makes a 

 stem two to four feet high and is found along the shaded banks 

 of streams and moist rocky woodlands. 



LOLIUM. 



1. L. PERENNE, English, or Perennial Rye Grass. 



This is the first grass cultivated in England, over two centu- 

 ries ago, and at a still more remote period in France. It was 

 long more widely known and cultivated than any other grass, 

 became adapted to a great variety of soils and conditions, and a 

 vast number (seventy or more) varieties produced ; some: of 

 which were greatly improved, while others were inferior and be- 

 came annuals. Introduced into the United States in the first 



