138 



PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



Cultivation.- Orchard grass may come through the winter unscathed 

 by the cold, but it is susceptible to late spring frosts after it has begun its 

 growth. It grows well in the shade and grows best on a fairly fertile, 

 well-drained soil. It requires a generous supply of moisture, but can 

 stand periodic droughts fairly well and its duration is superior to timothy, 



when used for hay it should be 

 cut as soon as it is in full bloom. 

 Orchard grass is abundant about 

 Philadelphia, but it can scarcely 

 be said to be cultivated. Spillman 

 in his "Farm Grasses of the 

 United States" states that it is 

 relatively most extensively culti- 

 vated in Virginia, North Carolina, 

 Tennessee, namely, along the 

 southern border of the timothy 

 region. The Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station of Arkansas recom- 

 mends the use of orchard grass 

 for permanent meadows and pas- 

 tures, as the best grass for that 

 purpose. It also thrives west of 

 the Cascade mountains in the 

 Pacific northwest. 



Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus 

 pratensis). This grass resembles 

 timothy, for which it is sometimes 

 taken by the uninitiated, but its 

 stems are not so tall, its heads 

 are shorter, and it blooms fully a 

 month earlier than timothy. It 

 grows 1-3 feet tall and develops 

 short, creeping rhizomes. The 



sheaths of its leaves are loose, the upper usually inflated. The spike- 

 lets are i-flowered, flattened. The lemma equals the acute, ciliate 

 glumes with an exserted awn. The seed is produced sparingly, is of poor 

 vitality, and therefore, costly. The number of seeds per pound is 

 1,216,000, and most of the commercial seed comes from abroad. 



PIG. 57. Orchard grass (Dactylis glome- 

 rata) . (After Ball, Carleton R. : Winter Forage 

 Crops for the South, Farmers' Bulletin 147, 

 1902, p. 21.) 



