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 ITALIAN BYE QRASS.-(Zowm Italicwn.) 



Prof. Way gives the following analysis of this grass: 

 Water, 75.61; flesh- forming principles, 2.45; fatty mat- 

 ters, .80; heat-producing principles, 14.11; woody fibre, 

 4.82; mineral substances, 2.21. 



This grass has been lately introduced from Europe, 

 where it is said to be more universally adapted to all 

 sorts of climates than any other grass, and is very pop- 

 ular there. It grows from two to three feet high, and 

 on moist, rich laud, will perhaps bear cutting as fre- 

 quently as a soiling or green forage crop, as any other 

 grass, affording a succession of green cuttings until late 

 in the fall. It can be forced by manures and irrigation 

 to a greater extent than any other known species of 

 hay. 



However, as can be seen from its analysis, it has, 

 when green, nearly half less nutrient properties than 

 timothy, and unless the farmer wishes to cut it as a 

 green food, it has no advantages over the latter. It is 

 an annual with a fibrous root, and bears grazing well. 

 The time of sowing is early fall, and ten pounds of seed 

 are required per acre, a bushel weighing eighteen pounds. 

 It is a valuable grass for Southern farmers, where hay 

 is scarce and high. Being sown in the fall, the farmer 

 will be enabled to cut it early in the spring, thus giving 

 the stock a change from corn alone to succulent hay. 

 It has been fully tested in Georgia, and has given great 

 satisfaction. It gives a fine color to the butter of cows 

 fed on it, and they eat it with great relish. It withstands the hot- 

 test suns of summer, as well as the frosts of the severest winter. 

 It must be sown alone, as it will quickly choke and destroy clover 

 or other grasses. Its yield per acre, according to received authority, 

 is immense. Mr. Dickens, of England, sowed it on a stiff, clay 

 soil, well manured, cut it ten times during one year the first time 

 ten inches in March; April 13th as;aiu; May 4th a third time; 

 May 25th a fourth time; June 14th again; July 22d a sixth time, 

 with ripe seed and three loads of hay to the acre. Immediately 

 after each cutting it was manured with liquid manure, the produce 

 of each crop increasing with the temperature of the atmosphere, 



