THE GRASSES, MEADOWS, ETC. 86 



greater variety of latitude, climate and situation, we hardly 

 cultivate twenty. The number and excellence of our natu- 

 ral grasses are probably unsurpassed in any quarter of the 

 globe, for a similar extent of country; but this is a depart- 

 ment of our natural history hitherto but partially explored, 

 and \ve are left mostly to conjecture as to their numbers and 

 comparative quality. From the health and thrift of tin- 

 wild animals, the buffalo, deer, &c., as well as the rapid 

 growth and fine condition of our domestic animals when 

 permitted to range over the prairies, or through the natural 

 marshes and woods in every season of the year, even during 

 the severe and protracted winters in latitude 44 north,* the 

 superior richness and enduringness of our natural grasses, 

 may be inferred. We shall limit ourselves mostly to those 

 which have been introduced, and successfully cultivated in 

 this country. 



TIMOTHY, CAT'S TAIL OR HERD'S GRASS (Phleum pra- 

 tcnse.) We are. inclined to place the Timothy first in the 

 list of the grasses. It is indigenous to this country and 

 flourishes in all soils except such as are wet, too light, dry 

 or sandy, and is found in perfection on the rich clays and 

 clay loams which lie between 40 and 44 north latitude. It 

 is a perennial, easy of cultivation, hardy and of luxuriant 

 growth, and on its favorite soil, yields from 1 \ to 2 tons of hay 

 per acre at one cutting. Sinclair estimates its value for hay 

 when in seed to be double that cut in flower. From its 

 increased value when ripe it is cut late, and in consequence 

 of the exhaustion from maturing its seed, it produces but 

 little aftermath or rowen. It vegetates early in the spring, 

 and when pastured, yields abundantly throughout the season. 

 Both the grass and hay are highly relished by cattle, sheep 

 and horses ; and its nutritive quality, in the opinion of prac- 

 tical men, stands decidedly before any other. It is also a 

 valuable crop for seed, an acre of prime grass yielding from 



* The writer lias seen large droves of the French and Indian ponies come into 

 the settlements about Green Bay and the Fox river in Wisconsin, in the spring, in 

 ijood working condition, after wintering on the natural grasses of that region. The 

 pony grass may perhaps be mentioned as one of the principal of the winter grasses 

 HI that region. It grows in close, thick, elevated tufts, and continues green all 

 u inter, and is easily detected hy animals under the snow, by the little hummocks 

 which everywhere indent its surface. The wild rice which lines the still, shallow 

 waters of the streams and small inland lakes of many of the Western States, affords 

 nutritious forage when preen or if early cut and dried; and the grain which is pro- 

 duced iii'great profusion is an cxhaustlcss store to the Indians who push into the 

 thickest of it, and bending over the ripe heads, with two or three strokes of the 

 paddle on the dry stalks, rattle the grain into their light canoes. The wild ducks, 

 > ; eese and swans which yet frequent those waters, fatten on this grain throughout 

 the fall and winter. 



