AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 85 



grow it with a view to improvement. As has happened with so 

 many other plants, proper soil and culture will probably dem- 

 onstrate much worth and improvement in this grass and partic- 

 ularly the variety. 



2. *P. ARUNDINACEA, Reed Canary Grass. 

 This coarse, rough grass growing naturally in, and about the 

 margins of marshes, shallow lakes and streams, possesses adapt- 

 ability to a variety of soils, wet and dry, and varies considera- 

 bly in the coloring of foliage and flowers. On dry lands the 

 leaves become striped forming the garden variety known as rib- 

 bon grass. The cylindrical stem from two to seven feet high 

 bears five or six broad leaves, light green in wet places, various- 

 ly striped in dry. It is a beautiful plant. 



Although all the analyses I have seen show considerable, and 

 some a large proportion of nutritious matter, cattle do not relish 

 it well. In the Woburn experiments, one acre of black, sandy 

 loam yielded 27,225 pounds of grass, losing in drying 14,973 

 pounds, and giving 1,701 pounds nutritive matter. A ten- 

 acious clay soil yielded 34,031 pounds of grass, losing in drying 

 17,015 pounds and giving 2,126 pounds of nutritive matter. 

 According to Scheven and Bitthausen the dried grass showed in 

 100 parts: protein 6.12, fat 1.30, heat producing principles 40.63 

 woody fibre 43.55, and ash 8.40. 



Yet it does not produce as much flesh or milk as its composi- 

 tion would warrant us to expect. But r e should remember 

 that when in bloom, as it was in the Woburn trials, although 

 it contains more nutritive matter than at an earlier stage, yet it 

 has already become hard, woody and comparatively indigestible. 

 If utilized therefore for stock-feed, it should be cut while young 

 and tender, only a foot or two high. It may thus be cut two or 

 three times each summer. It should never be allowed to reach 

 full bloom, because subject to attacks of a fungous growth sim- 

 ilar to, or perhaps identical with spurred rye, or ergot, which is 

 considered very fatal to cattle eating it. 



This hard grass might be rendered tender and digestible by 

 placing in silos or by ensilage, as now practised in France and 

 by a few in America, with com fodder for winter forage. 



This grass may be propagated by dividing and transplanting 

 the roots every square foot, or by sowing the seed at the rate of 

 half bushel or twenty-five pounds per acre. 



In marshy lands it weaves such strong webs of roots that it 

 can bear up teams of oxen and loaded wagons. It retains wash- 

 ings, thus assisting to fill up and reclaim small marshes. It 

 may obstruct small streams and thus produce other marshes 

 however, which must be guarded against. 



In conclusion, as we have so many better grasses for agricul- 

 tural purposes, I would not recommend to cultivate this for 

 forage. 



