THE FARMERS' REGISTER, 



613 



very scanty jrrowih of small |.lunls conipared to 

 tliose 01) tlic siuid beach — ami since not one hns 

 appeared where sown. On the beach ihey con- 

 tinue to grow luxuriantly on detached spots, and 

 maintain their earliest ground. The parncuiar 

 sand beach on which only this growth is known 

 has some ad m ix tare ol broken sliells, and also oT rich 

 mould washed Ironi higher land. There can be 

 no suit in it, as the river water is very rarely brack- 

 ish, and only in remarkably dry summers. 



This plant would not serve as well as the East- 

 ern Shore bean, which it so nearly resembles, lor 

 a green manuring crop on land regularly cultivat- 

 ed ; lor, if the Ibrmer would grow on the fields 

 as luxuriantly as on the sandy beach of James 

 river, no plough could turn under the cover ol 

 the land. But, if a salt soil is not injurious to its 

 growth — still more, if salt be beneficial to it, as I 

 have supposed of its well-known kindred plant — 

 then the sandy beach bean would serve admirably 

 well to be set on sea-coast islands and beaches ol 

 almost pure sand, which are in daniier of being 

 encroached upon and washed away by the sea. 

 Such a thick and heavy growth as this, being 

 fixed where scarcely any other can live, would 

 bind the before loose and shifting sand, and pre- 

 vent its being carried oH, either to the sea by the 

 violence of the waves, or by the winds, when dry, 

 to gradually spread over and destroy cultivated 

 farms in the interior. One or the other, or both ol 

 these destructive operations of storms are continu- 

 ally in progress on some of the sea-islands of Vir- 

 ginia, and on every other low sandy sea-coast. 



E. K. 



POVERTY GRASS. ARISTIDA GRACILIS, AND 

 ARISTIDA DICHOTOMA. 



Aristida. Glume tvvo-valved, membranous, 

 unequal. Paleaj two pedicellate, subcylindric ; 

 lower one coriaceous, involute, three awned at 

 the tip ; upper one very minute ; or obsolete. 

 Scales collateral. Panicles contracted.— ^ec/c. 



1. ji. gracilis, Ell, ; stem very slender : flow- 

 ers in spikes : spikeleta lew flowered, somewhat 

 remote, appressed ; lateral awns short, erect ; the 

 intermediate one longer, expanding. 



2. y/. dichotoma, Mx. cespitose : culm dicho- 

 tomous : flowers racemose, spiked ; lateral awns 

 very short, intermediate ones contorted.— j^ai. 



M. 1', 



Synonymes. — 1. Aristida gracilis — HerCs nest 

 grass.— Hen grass.— Poverty grass, the name 

 adopted in ' Essay on Calcareous Manures.' 



This annual grass in its size and appearance is 

 as email and contemptible, as it is worthless to 

 agriculture and in every other respect. It is how- 

 ever well deserving of observation as being one 

 of the most striking and unerring indications of 

 the quality and chemical constitution of soil, 

 and thereby serving to direct what kind of ma- 

 nure is wanting, and is essential to its improve- 

 ment. 



The poverty grass usually grows to about six 

 inches high. Its stem is straight, hard, and not 

 larger near the ground than a small pin, or mid- 

 dling sized sewing needle. Altogether, except 

 in its diminutive size, its general appearance, in 

 stem and leaves, is much like that of broom grass, 



(aiulropogon scoparius,) belbre the latter blooms. 

 As small as is thirf grass, and perhaps uimoiicea- 

 ble il standing singly, it lorms in the mass, and 

 covering as it does entire acres and even fields, 

 one of the must nnitorm and striking lealures of 

 the poor lands of lower Viiginia. Under the or- 

 dinary three-shift rotation, of 1, corn, 2, wheal, 

 3, pasture, this grass is the general growtli ol' the 

 poor land on the third year ; and by winter, it re- 

 mains almost the only vegetable matter on the 

 grazed land. For it is rejected as Ibod by the 

 cattle, and its very hardness and elasticity prevent 

 its being much destroyed by being frampl<'d upon. 

 After being killed by frost, its color changes (i-om 

 green to a dingy white, which gives a general 

 and unitbrm light color to the fields through win- 

 ter, and serves to show, in strong contrast, any 

 spot of belter or improved soil, by the diflerent 

 color. Next to sheep sorrel (jumex acetocella) 

 the presence of poverty grass is the surest indica- 

 tion of acidity of soil, and its natural poverty : and 

 consequently (according to my views) that the 

 application of calcareous manure would be there 

 litghly advantageous — and indeed that, without 

 it, the soil can never be durably or profitably en- 

 riched. Wherever a field is whitened in winter 

 by the abundant growth of this grass, there can 

 be no mistake as to the soil being of the bad 

 character just described. And when such land 

 is mailed, this growth disappears immediately 

 and entirely. This efiect, and the change of ap- 

 pearance thence caused, are so certain, that if 

 marl has been scattered irregularly and no marks 

 left of its outlines, or of vacancies, the subsequent 

 growth of poverty grass will show precisely the 

 limits of all the omiiled spots. In this manner 

 1 have discovered, years alierwards, in fields gene- 

 rally marled, small spots left unmarled by the ac- 

 cidental omission of a few loads wanting to finish 

 a row. Thus, in the general, the growth of this 

 grass, or its subsequent disappearance, will show 

 with absolute certainty to the farmer the chemi- 

 cal constitution of his soil, in regard to its acidity 

 or alkaline (or neutral) quality — and, accordingly, 

 its unfitness or subsequent fitness lor receiving 

 benefit from putrescent manures, 



2. Aristida dichotoma. No provincial name 

 known. 



As common as this grass probably was in the 

 region where I have long lived, and on the fields 

 which I had tilled, its existence was not known to 

 me until very lately, as distinct from the common 

 " poverty grass" last described. The grass now 

 under notice is a kindred species, very like the' 

 other in growth and general appearance, and, if 

 ever iiciore observed by me, had been taken lor 

 the larger plants of the same. When gathering 

 specimens lately, as supposed of the iijrmer kinds 

 to be examined by Mr. Tuomey, he remarked the 

 differerice, and first drew my attention to it. If 

 but a single specimen had been selected to send to 

 a distance, it is more than probable that it would 

 have been of this larger growth, chosen as a fine 

 and well developed specimen, and thus I should 

 have misled the botanist to whom it would have 

 been re/erred lor classification, by presenting one 

 grass for another supposed to be perfectly well 

 known. Thus a new cause of error would have 

 been brought to increase the existing confusion 

 of names. The circumstance is mentioned to 



