fJRASS I,AND 



indigenous or cultivated in the United 

 States. 



All these grasses are perennial in 

 a good soil, and a rich, permanent 

 meadow for grass or pasture should 

 contain several kinds. The amount 

 of cured hay produced will be about 

 one fifth of the grass cut. For far- 

 ther particulars, see the Grasses 

 themselves. 



Specific Manures. — Grasses are re- 

 markable for the amount of alkali 

 (potash or soda) they contain, and if 

 allowed to run to seed, are also rich 

 in bone earth. Sprengel found in 1000 

 pounds of rye grass hay 



Potash and soda 12-T5 lbs. 



Lime and mafjnesia .... 8 15 " 



Sulphuric acid 350 " 



Phosphoric acid '25 " 



Silica 27-70 " 



Chlorine, iron, &c '40 " 



3275 



This specimen must have been 

 made from grass before flowering. 

 From this composition, we learn that 

 fresh ashes (leached ashes on sandy 

 soils), bone earth, gypsum, and occa- 

 sional top-dressing, with air-slacked 

 lime, are appropriate manures. Ni- 

 trogen manures, applied to grass 

 crops, are, in some measure, wasted 

 from their exposure. Soluble silicate 

 of soda and potash has been used on 

 grass with advantage. The green 

 marl of New- Jersey will, in part, an- 

 swer this purpose on stiff soils. 



GRASS LAND. " This may be 

 divided into water meadows, upland 

 pastures, and artificial grasses. The 

 first are treated of under Irrigation : 

 the nature and management of the 

 last two we shall here briefly de- 

 scribe. Upland pastures are portions 

 of land on which the natural grasses 

 grow spontaneously, varying in quan- 

 tity and quality with the soil and sit- 

 uation. The plants which form the 

 natural sward are not confined to the 

 family of true grasses, but many oth- 

 er plants, chiefly with perennial roots, 

 form part of the herbage. In the rich- 

 est soils the variety is exceedingly 

 great. When a sod is taken up, and 

 all the plants on it are examined, the 

 species will be found more numerous 

 than we should have believed possi- j 

 346 



ble;* and in the same ground the 

 plants will vary in different years, so 

 as to induce one to conclude, that, 

 like most other herbaceous plants, 

 the grasses degenerate when they 

 have grown for a long time on the 

 same spot, and that a kind of rota- 

 tion is established by nature. It is 

 chiefly in those pastures where the 

 grasses are allowed to grow till they 

 form their seed that this is observa- 

 ble ; for when they are closely fed, 

 and not allowed to shoot out a seed 

 stem, they are less subject to degen- 

 erate and disappear. This may be a 

 reason why experienced dairymen 

 are so unwilling to allow their best 

 pastures to be mown for hay. They 

 pretend that the Iced is deteriorated 

 in the next year, and that inferior 

 grasses are introduced which injure 

 the quality of their butter and cheese. 

 Close feeding is always considered 

 as the most advantageous, both to 

 the cattle and the proprietor. 



'• The only way in which a pasture 

 distant from cities can be profitable, 

 is by feeding stock ; and its value is 

 in the exact proportion to the num- 

 ber of sheep or cattle which can be 

 fed upon it in a season. Extensive 

 pastures are often measured only by 

 their capacity in this respect. 



" When a pasture is naturally rich, 

 the only care required is to stock it 

 judiciously, to move the cattle fre- 

 quently from one spot to another 

 (for which purpose, enclosures well 

 fenced are highly advantageous), and 

 to eradicate certain plants which are 

 useless or noxious, such as docks 

 and thistles, alder, broom, briars and 

 thorns, which, not being touched by 

 the cattle as long as they have better 

 food, would increase and overrun the 

 ground, and take up a space which 

 would be more profitably occupied by 

 good herbage. The dung of the cat- 

 tle, also, when left in heaps as it is 



* In a sod of grass the following plants were 

 found : Plantagolanceolata, Agrostiscapillaris, 

 Avena llavescens, Daotylis glomerata, F'estuca 

 duriuscula, Poa annua, Cynosurus cristatus, 

 Trifolium repens, Crepis tectorum, Achillea 

 millefolium, Galium verum, Hypocha;ris radi 

 cata, Hiaracium pilosella, Thymus serpyllum 

 — (Curtis on Grasses.) 



i 



