( 19 ) 

 ORCHARD GRASS (DaetyH* Glomerata.) 



Whether a native of America or Europe, 

 or indigenous to both countries, it is well 

 known that orchard grass is diffused more 

 extensively than any other grass, growing all 

 over Europe, the northwestern parts of 

 Africa, and in Asia Minor. Known as cock's 

 foot in England for many centuries, it was 

 not appreciated as a forage plant until sent to 

 that country from Virginia. It is a peren- 

 nial, and grows upon congenial soils any- 

 where between 35 and 47 degrees north lati- 

 tude. It likes a soil moderately dry, porous, 

 fertile and inclined to be sandy. On stiff 

 clay soils retentive of moisture, the roots do not acquire such a 

 vigor as to give a luxuriant top growth. The feebleness of the 

 roots upon such a soil makes them liable to be thrown up by the 

 earth. It may be grown successfully on a lean, sterile soil, by a 

 top dressing of stable manure, yielding during a moderately wet 

 season from two to three crops. In its rapid growth in early spring 

 lies one of its chief merits, furnishing a rich bite for cattle earlier 

 than almost any other grass. It also grows later in the fall. It is 

 very hardy when well set, makes a great yield, grows rapidly and 

 vigorously upon suitable soils, supplies a rich, nutritious hay, which, 

 compared with timothy, is in value in the proportion of 7 to 10. 

 It starts out early in spring, and comes into blossom about the time 

 of red clover. It attains a height, upon good soils, of three feet, 

 though upon soils of great fertility it sometimes reaches the height 

 of five feet. After being cut, it springs up rapidly, sometimes in 

 rainy weather growing three or four inches within a week. This 

 quality of rapid growth unfits it for a lawn grass unless cut every 

 week. 



Nevertheless, this very quality makes it stand unrivalled as a 

 pasture grass. The Hon. John Stanton Gould says in his essay' 

 upon this grass : " The laceration produced by the teeth of cattle, 

 instead of injuring, actually stimulates it to throw out additional 

 leaves, yielding the tenderest and sweetest herbage." 



The chief objection to orchard grass is that it grows too much in 

 stools or tussocks. This can be remedied by sowing a larger quan- 



