YELLOW OAT GRASS. 55 



Habits of growth : Yellow Oat Grass is medium early, flowering 

 a little later than Orchard Grass. When soil and climate are suit- 

 able, it makes a good stand in a short time and spreads readily. 



Agricultural value: On account of its somewhat tufted habit, 

 it should always be sown with other grasses. Its principal value is 

 for bottom grass in hay mixtures, as it increases both the yield and 

 the feeding quality. After cutting it produces a great number of 

 new stems and leaves, and the second growth may be profitably 

 used for either hay or pasture. All kinds of stock like it, and in 

 some parts of Europe it is considered one of the most valuable fodder 

 grasses. Experiments in Canada, however, have not given prom- 

 ising results. When sown alone, twenty to twenty-five pounds of 

 seed should be applied to the acre. 



Seed : The commercial seed of Yellow Oat Grass is gem rally 

 very impure, as it is always secured from mixtures with other grasses, 

 especially Tall Oat and Orchard Grass, and afterwards separated by 

 sieves. It is yellowish-brown and weighs from five to six pounds a 

 bushel. 



These keep 

 Seeming and savour all the winter long. 



Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, A' t 4, Sc. III., 1592 



Over-luxuriance in corn is repressed by the teeth of cattle, but only while it is in the blade; in 

 which case, if depastured upon ever so often, no injury to it when in the ear will be the result. Pliny, 

 Natural History, 23-79. 



The elements of agriculture are the same as those of the world : water, earth, air, the sun. These 

 things are to be understood before you sow your seed, which is the origin of vegetation. Marcus 

 Terentius Varro, 116-27 B.C. 



Everyone will tell you that manure is the best thing in the world for agriculture, and every one 

 can see how naturally it is produced. Still, though the method of production is accurately known, 

 though there is every facility to get it in abundance, the fact remains that, while one man takes pains 

 to have manure collected, another is entirely neglectful. And yet God sends us rain from heaven, 

 and every hollow place becomes a standing pool, while ruth supplies materia] of every kind; the 

 sower, too, about to sow, must cleanse the soil, anil what he takes as refuse from it needs only to be 

 thrown into water and time itself will do the rest, shaping all to gladden earth. For matter in every 

 shape, nay, earth itself, in stagnant water turns to line manure. Xenophon, / ';, Ecom m st. 434 355 

 B.C. 



