304 



GRASSES. 



both collect and retaiu atmospheric plant food; than 

 lOr the ashes or mineral constituents it leaves in the 

 soil in its final decomposition. 



'Tis true that when a soil is completely exhausted 

 by continual cropping, without any return of vegeta- 

 ble refuse to replace the ashes of plants in it, the 

 application of pure ammonia salts would be nugatory, 

 hence why leached wood ashes is such a desideratum 

 on such thoroughly exhausted soils. But I take it 

 that no farmer in Western New York has yet per- 

 mitted his soil to run so near the starvation point by 

 continued plowing, without a manuring crop of clover 

 turned under by the plow, or its equivalent substi- 

 tutes, the vegetable refuse of the farm composted 

 v/ith the manure of his stables. And when this is 

 done, we have the authority of the Rothamsted ex- 

 periments for astcrling that nitrogen is the most im- 

 portant ingredient in manures ; and that vegetable 

 (carbonaceous) manure enough to supply the neces- 

 sary ammonia (organized nitrogen) for the maximum 

 vegetable growth, will also contain in its debris all 

 the minerals necessary to form the ashes of the plants 

 thus grown, and that the deficiency of carbonic acid 

 necessary to complete the carbon of the vegetable 

 structure, will be supplied by the atmosphere. Be- 

 cause so much less nitrogen is found in the organism 

 of plants than carbon, is no argument against its im- 

 portance in aiding vegetable structure, as Liebio 

 himself no longer gives the palm to potash, as the 

 exclusive solvent of silica, for he readily admits, in 

 his " Relations of Chemistry to- Agriculture," that 

 ammonia is a solvi-nt of the phosphates and silicates 

 in the soil, into available plant food; and that this 

 view of the office of ammonia is true, the importance of 

 that highly nitro^eiiized substance Peruvian guano, 

 deficient as it is in potash, most clearly pr»ves. 



The experiments of Mr. Lawes have effectually 

 exploded the theory that plants should be fed with 

 suchmanuies as contain the most of those elements 

 found in the analysis of the same plants; so far from 

 this, wheat, which contains much phosphoric acid, is 

 little benefited by the application of the phosphate 

 of lime, while turnips, beans, pea.?, &c., which contain 

 little phosphoric acid, are not only benefited, but the 

 crop of turnips may be nearly doubled by its applica- 

 tion. Ammonia salts, as contained in stable manure, 

 is the best manure for wheat and the other cereals, 

 and phosphate of lime or bone earth for turnips, &c. 

 As the latter, by their broad leaves and extended 

 foliage, collect their ammonia from the atmosphere, 

 hence their importance as a manurial crop. 



But however valuable the Rothamsted experiments 



are to the English .farmer, they can only ba followed 

 in these United States by making due allowance for 

 the difference in climate, and varying the crop ac- 

 cordingly. In the cool, moist climate of England, 

 turnips have proved a great boon to English agricul- 

 ture, correspondent only to the benefit derived from 

 the red clover plant in the hot and dry climate of the 

 United States. While our climate is uusuited to turnip 

 culture on an extended scale, as it is in England, on 

 the other hand, Mr, Lawes tells us that red clover 

 becomes sick, and cannot be kept up as a continuous 

 crop in England, even under the most generous 

 treatment. 



In my next I will give the history of the first accli- 

 mation of the red clover plant-in the United States, 

 and the discovery of the manurial office of gypsum,, 

 as applied to the g'a?sc3 generally, and clover in 

 particular. s. w. 



Waterloo, Sp] ',. 21, 1855. 



GRASSES. 



We endeavor to answer all questions as promptly 

 as possible. Some of the inquiries made are of suchJ 

 a nature "that we can not answer them in the proper^ 

 department, but have to give a regular article on the* 

 subject. In some numbers of the Farmer almost! 

 every article is given in answer to letters of inquiry, 

 The present article on grasses will' satisfactorily am* 

 swer several of our friends who have asked informa- 

 tion on the subject. 



SWEET-SCENTED VERNAL GRASS— Anthoxakthcm ODORA' 

 TDM. (Fig. 1.) 



Bontankal or specific character of distinction. — 

 Panicle, spiked, ovate oblong, flowers longer that 

 their awns, on short, partial stalks. 



The blossom of this grass is double, the outer onu 

 is entu'ely diflerent from that of any other of thH 

 grasses; its outside is covered nearly to the top witU 

 stiff brown hairs, lying flat. Stem with two or threw 

 short hairs and shining joints. Native of Britain, 



Dissections. — 1. Calyx or husks; 2. Stamens an(< 

 anthers, or male parts of the flower or corolla, witll 

 the awn and feathered stigma; 3. Feathered stignui 

 on the germ of the seed; 4. Corolla husk.s, the uatOJi 

 ral size. 



On a brown sandy loam, the produce of this graaa 

 in the beginning of April, is — 



tbs. per acrei 



Green footl, or grass 



Nutritive matter 



At^the season of flowering the piortuce of grains is 



Wlien made into hay the produce wc-iglts 



At the lime the seed is ripe t)ie produce is — green food 6,jK 



Or, when made into hay, weiglis __, 



The weight of nutritive matter afforded by this crop is,.. 



The weight of nutritive matter which is lost, then 

 fore, by taking the crop when the grass is in floweil 

 exceeds one-half of its value, or 188 lbs. per acre. 



Tom 



