67 



sided leaves to each plant, and radical leaves often numbering thirty to a stalk The 

 root is perennial and throws off numerous and long-creeping root-stocks, enabling it 

 to form a dense matted tuft. The chief reputation of this grass is as a pasture grass 

 the sod is easily obtained and very enduring, there being no such thing known w 

 its running out on good laud. Pastures sixty years unbroken afford their owners an 

 annual profit of at least $10 an acre. It starts very early in the spring, and grows 

 rapidly after being grazed off. It will furnish more late feed than most grasses, and 

 no amount of pasturing is sufficient to utterly destroy it. It endures the frosts of 

 winter better than any other grass on the continent, and therefore pushes its way 

 northward into the Arctic Circle. Severe droughts injure blue grass, yet it grows as 

 far south as the hilly parts of Georgia and Alabama, and in Arkansas, not, however, 

 as vigorously as farther north. Although in a drought it often becomes dry enongli 

 to burn, it is greedily eaten by stock ; it dries full of nourishing properties, and cattle 

 will fatten upon it unless it has been drenched with rains. Blue grass can not be re- 

 commended for the meadow, as it is hard to cut and difficult to cure; the foliage is 

 too short and too light after being dried. 



It is an excellent grass for lawns, as it makes a dense, uniform mat of verdure, 

 and sends up but one flowering stem a year ; for this purpose it is thickly seeded and 

 and kept closely mown. 



An experienced Kentucky agriculturist says the season of sowing 

 may be any time from August to April. 



The seed should be sown from 1 to 2| bushels per acre, and lightly brushed in on 

 a well-prepared surface. The seed may be sown on a grain field without any prepara- 

 tion. Some prefer to sow on small grain in February or March, on the snow. One 

 advantage in this is the evenness with which the seed maybe sown. If the sowing 

 is done later it would be advisable to harrow the field before sowing it, and roll it 

 afterward. A very loose or open surface is fatal to blue grass in the young state if 

 the weather be the least dry. 'No stock should be permitted on the grass the first 

 year. Blue grass is sometimes destroyed in sandy soils by cattle, which in grazing 

 pull it up. In stiff clay this is not so likely to happen. 



(Plate 75.) 



Poa serotina (Fowl Meadow Grass). 



Culms erect, 2 or 3 feet high, without running rootstocks. The leaves are nar- 

 rowly linear, 3 to 6 inches long, and 2 to 3 lines wide, the sheaths long, smooth, and 

 striate, the ligules long. The panicle varies with the size of the plant, from 5 to 10 

 or 12 inches long and 1 to 3 inches wide and lax; the branches mostly iu fives or 

 more numerous, nearly erect, from 1 to 4 inches long, the longer ones subdivided and 

 llowering above the middle. There are some mountain forms or varieties in which 

 the culms are 1 foot or less in height and the panicle greatly reduced. The spike- 

 lets are 1 to 2 lines long, two to five-flowered, on short pedicels. The outer glumes 

 are about 1 line long and sharp-pointed. The flowering glume is rather obtuse, the 

 lateral nerves not prominent, slightly pubescent on the margins below, and somewhat 

 webby at the base. 



This species is most common in the Northern States, particularly in 

 New England, New York, and westward to Wisconsin, and also in re- 

 duced forms in all mountainous districts. 



Professor Beal says : 



The name fowl meadow grass is said to have been applied to this grass because 

 ducks and other wild water-birds were supposed to have introduced the grass into a 

 poor, low meadow in Dedhain, Mass. 



