THE GRASSES OF MAINE. 



more than five or six of these are known by the mass of our farmers. 

 The clovers are not included here, as the}" do not belong to the 

 grasses, but to the pulse family (Leguminosce) . 



According to the Census report for 1880, there were 1,107,788 

 tons of hay cut in the State of Maine in the year 1879. If we 

 assume that the average value of that hay was ten dollars a ton, we 

 have $11,077,880 as the value of the hay crop for that year. It 

 would be difficult to determine what proportion of the above quan- 

 tity of hay was clover, but omitting all reference to the value of the 

 grass in the pastures, which will, without doubt, far more than offset 

 all the clover in the above-named amount of hay, we still have over 

 eleven million dollars for the value of the true grasses which were 

 grown in the State of Maine and cut for hay in the year 1879, and 

 this sum is greater than the amount of the value of all the wheat, 

 corn, rye, oats, barlej^, buckwheat, potatoes, peas, beans, orchard 

 products, market-garden products and forest products of the entire 

 State for the same }*ear. It may well be claimed that grass is the 

 most important of all our crops, and really forms the foundation of 

 agriculture in the State. 



We are informed that Itye-grass (Lolium perenne, L.) was first 

 cultivated in England in 1677, but none of the other true grasses 

 for nearly a century later, though the clovers had been cultivated 

 long previous to that time. In 1759, some of the more progressive 

 farmers commenced sowing the seeds shaken out of the best meadow 

 grasses, along with the clovers, and in 1761-64 Timothy (Pkleum 

 pratense, L.) and Orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata, L.) were in- 

 troduced from this country, and at the present time quite a long list 

 of grasses is cultivated in Europe, and by a few in this country. 

 By far the greater number of our farmers, at the present time, con- 

 fine their culture to Timothy, Red-Top, Red and Alsike clover, while 

 a few sow Orchard grass, Hungarian grass, and possibly a few 

 others. 



A great mistake is often made in sowing too few kinds of grasses, 

 and as a result the plants are so far from each other that ample room 

 is left for undesirable grasses and weeds to creep in. Another mis-, 

 take is to sow a mixture of seeds of grasses which do not come into 

 blossom at the same time, and it is, therefore, impossible to cut them 

 at a time when all are in the best condition for hay. Many farmers 

 cover their grass seed too deeply. Very careful experiments have 

 been made, which showed that when the seeds of Timothy, Orchard 



