KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS. 45 



is not commended to cultivate especially for hay. It 

 is not as profitable a product to merchandize as 

 timothy and orchard grass. Blue grass on limestone 

 land is perpetual, if properly managed, and the per- 

 fection it attains in Kentucky is to be attributed to 

 favorable soils, a temperate climate and mild winters, 

 all of which have contributed to make Kentucky 

 Blue grass the basis of our agricultural wealth and 

 prosperity." 



In the states of Pensylvania and Delaware, also in 

 other places, there is great confusion casued by call- 

 ing other grasses of the Poa family by the name of 

 Blue grass. The editors of the Country Gentleman 

 took great pains a few years ago to set this matter 

 right. They state: "We have, ourselves, in Ken- 

 tucky, Ohio, Pensylvania and other states, given 

 particular attention to the subject, consulting with 

 those best qualified to speak authoritively. Poa 

 Pratensis is unquestionably the grass known in Ken- 

 tucky as "Blue grass," and in other states by the 

 name of Kentucky Blue grass. In Pennsylvania and 

 Dele ware, however, this same grass is popularly called 

 "green grass," while the variety botamcally termed 

 Poa Compressa, does have priority of claim to 

 designation as Blue grass, but there is no doubt that 

 what is known as Kentucky Blue grass, the grass 

 which gives their peculiar value to the grazing lands 

 of Fayette, Woodfurd, Bourbon and adjoining 

 counties in Kentucky, is something quite different and 

 is in fact Poa Pratensis. In Eastern Pennsylvania 

 and Delaware the farmers will say that green grass 

 produces the herbage which renders their best 

 pastures of almost unrivalled excellence, and will 

 point out as Blue grass specimens of Poa Compassa, 



