GRASSES. 



E:irly past 



ticular notice ; it is hardy, early, and 

 more productive than many others 

 which affect similar soils and situa- 

 tions. Its growth, after heing crop- 

 ped, is tolerably rapid, although it 

 does not attain to a great length if 

 left growing ; like the Poa pratcnsis, 

 it sends forth flower stalks but once 

 in a season, and it appears well cal- 

 culated for permanent pasture on 

 rich, light soils. 



" The annual meadow grass {Poa 

 annua, c) is the most common of all 

 grasses, and the least absolute in its 

 habits. It is almost the only grass 

 that will grow in towns. Though 

 an annual grass, it is found in most 

 meadows and pastures perpetually 

 flowering, and affording an early 

 sweet herbage, relished by all stock, 

 and of as great importance to birds 

 as wheat is to man. It hardly re- 

 quires to be sown, as it springs up 

 everywhere of itself. However, it 

 may not be amiss to sow a few pounds 

 of it per acre wherever perpetual pas- 

 ture (not hay) is the object. 



" The fine bent grass {Agrostis vul- 

 garis, d) is one of the most common 

 grasses, and, according to the Wo- 

 burn experiments, one of the earliest. 

 The A. palustris is nearly as early in 

 producing its foliage, though both 

 flower late, and neither is very pro- 

 lific either in bulk or nutritive matter. 

 A- striata is the herd's grass of Vir- 

 ginia and the South. 

 342 



ure grasses, 



" The narrow - leaved meadow 

 grass {Poa an gusti folia, e), though it 

 flowers late, yet is remarkable for 

 the early growth of the leaves. Ac- 

 cording to the Woburn experiments, 

 the leaves attain to the length of more 

 than twelve inches before the middle 

 of April, and are soft and succulent ; 

 in ^Iay, however, when the flower 

 stalks make their appearance, it is 

 subject to the disease termed rust, 

 which affects the whole plant, the 

 consequence of which is manifest in 

 the great deficiency of produce in the 

 crop at the time the seed is ripe, be- 

 ing then one half less than at the 

 time of the flowering of the grass. 

 Though this disease begins in the 

 straws, the leaves suffer most from 

 its effects, being, at the time the seed 

 is ripe, completely dried up : the 

 straws, therefore, constitute the prin- 

 cipal part of the crop for mowing, 

 and they contain more nutritive mat- 

 ter, in proportion, than the leaves. 

 This grass is evidently most valuable 

 for permanent pasture, for which, in 

 consequence of its superior, rapid, 

 and early growth, and the disease 

 beginning at the straws, nature seems 

 to have designed it. The grasses 

 which approach nearest to this in re- 

 spect of early produce of leaves, are 

 the Poa fertiUs, J)actylis glomerata, 

 Phleum pratensc, Alopccurus praten- 

 sis, Avcna elatior, and Bromus liltore- 

 us, all grasses of a coarser kind. 



