80 FARMER'S BOOK OF GRASSES 



3. P. OANARIENSIS, Common Canary Grass, partially natu- 

 ralized in some localities, is pretty, and, when young, relished 

 by cattle; but it is cultivated only for the seeds for bird-feed. 



P ASP ALUM. 



In the southern States there are twenty species of Paspaluin 

 recognized. No trivial name has been generally adopted for 

 any of them. The name 'water grass' has been applied to one 

 or two of them that grow not in the water but in cultivated 

 fields; but is only of local use and not distinctive from having 

 been longer appropriated and more generally given to several 

 other grasses. Paspaluin is more generally used; and there is 

 no reason why it should not exclude all other names. The sev- 

 eral species can then be designated by adding a word marking 

 some characteristic of each. 



Except two, these paspalums are all perennials. They are all 

 succulent, tender, nutritious, hardy, thrifty and relished by all 

 grass-eating animals. They fill the soil with a matting of roots 

 and cover the surface densely with luxuriant foliage from early 

 spring till autumnal frost. In some localities from this dense, 

 rather smooth covering where grazed, they are called as if one, 

 'carpet grass.' But this name, also having been previously ap- 

 propriated, is not distinctive. Several species are often found 

 on the same common, arriving at maturity at different periods, 

 and some are in perfection throughout the season. 



The genus as a whole is one of the most valuable of all our na- 

 tive southern pasture grasses, perhaps I should add, hay grasses. 

 For compared with three of the best known and esteemed culti- 

 vated grasses the nutritive matter they contain is in the follow- 

 ing order : timothy 67.26, paspalum 65.85, orchard 60.99, blue 

 grass 56.04. Although this shows timothy containing a little 

 more nutritive matter, yet, being less digestible, it does not 

 make so good a hay as paspalum. 



Mr. Collier's analysis shows that 1. Paspalum Iceve contains in 

 TOO parts : oil 1.74, wax 1.0*2, sugars 8. 86, gum and dextrin 5.47, 

 cellulose 27.72. amylaceous cellulose 26.67, alkaline extract 

 13.95, albuminoids 8.14, ash 6.43. The ashes were found to 

 contain potassium oxide 25.44, sodium 1.12, sodium oxide .60, 

 calcium oxide 9.36, magnesium oxide 5.56, sulphuric acid 5.64, 

 phosphoric acid 6.18, silicic acid 44.65, chlorine 1.73. 



Another farmer and myself have spent our lives so far in the 

 same vicinity. He has always been widely known for the good 

 condition in which he keeps all his animals and for liberal feed- 

 ing. For twenty-five years he has been feeding this grass ; and 

 for many years has had a meadow of this grass alone, from 

 which without ever having seeded, he annually mows about two 

 tons of hay per acre. Drovers, who have been in the habit of 



