DESCRIPTION OF IMPORTANT GRASS FORAGE PLANTS 139 



Growth and Hay. It grows best on good soils and it is the chief grass 

 of the richer natural pastures of Great Britain. It reaches maturity two, or 

 three years after sowing and growing best in wet meadows, where it is to 

 be ranked, as one of the earliest pasture grasses to start its growth in the 

 spring. The hay of meadow foxtail is sweet and nutritive, especially 

 before the formation of seed, as the sugar is drawn from stem and leaves 

 and is used in the formation of the reserve materials of the seeds. It 

 forms when grown an abundance of excellent pasture and all kinds of 

 stock like it. 



Smooth Brome Grass (Bromus inermis). This is a grass of recent 

 introduction, perennial by a creeping rootstock. The stems are stout form- 

 ing heavy clumps, but when the soil is seeded abundantly these clumps 

 unite to form a compact sod. The roots penetrate deeply, hence this 

 grass is adapted to a wide range of climatic conditions. The panicles are 

 large and with spreading branches. The spikelets are one inch long and 

 brownish-red when old. Each spikelet has from seven to nine flowers, 

 each enclosed by two more or less blunt scales. The lemmas are without 

 awns. 



Smooth Brome Grass thrives on loose comparatively poor land, 

 where more valuable grasses might be a failure. It is valued because of 

 its drought-resisting qualities producing in dry summers more green forage 

 than any other grass. It is adapted to western Canada on account of its 

 hardiness. It is sown at the rate of ten to twelve pounds of seed to the 

 acre. It* should be cut before 'flowering, as it becomes hard and less 

 palatable. The smooth brome grass has been grown for centuries upon 

 the steppes of Russia, hence it is adapted to a cold climate and a dry soil. 



Blue-Joint Grass (Calamagrostis canadensis) . The blue-joint grass is 

 a perennial with creeping rhizome which gives rise to culms 1-3 feet high 

 with a clustered habit. The leaves are very rough, glaucous, flat and 

 involute in drying. The panicle is spreading with the i -flowered spike- 

 lets on slender branches and of a reddish-brown color. The glumes are 

 equal, acute, scarcely longer than the lemma, which has an inconspicuous 

 awn. The callus hairs are copious about as long as the floret. This grass 

 is a native of wet places from eastern Quebec to New Jersey and westward 

 and it flowers from June to July. It may be distinguished from red top 

 by its awned lemma and the tuft of white silky hairs in each spikelet. 



Blue-joint sometimes occupies large areas to the exclusion of other 

 grasses. Hay made from it is of excellent quality and much relished by 



