180 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



mous quantities of forage. In the latter locality, ac- 

 cording to Storer, it is cut four or five times in a 

 season. Italian rye-grass is practically an annual, but 

 by letting it ripen seed before cuttirfg the hay, which 

 it is perfectly safe to do as far as quality of the hay is 

 concerned, it reseeds itself, and is thus to all purposes 

 a perennial. The old plants do not actually die at the 

 end of the first year, but they do not amount to any- 

 thing after the first crop year. English rye-grass is 

 little better in this respect, though it is called a peren- 

 nial. The European farmer thoroughly understands 

 these grasses, and under his care they are the best of 

 all the tame grasses. The American farmer has never 

 been noted for bestowing especial attention to his 

 grass-fields. He prefers a grass like timothy, that does 

 not need careful attention, though he loses much from 

 the usual manner in which he handles his timothy 

 meadows. 



West of the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon and 

 Washington, and in the corresponding portion of 

 northern California, Italian rye-grass has gained con- 

 siderable popularity. It does particularly well on 

 moist lands reclaimed by dyking. It is not generally 

 met with in that section, but a few farmers prize it 

 highly. It grows well on irrigated lands in central 

 Washington, and on the upland wheat soils of that 

 State and northern Idaho, near the mountains where 

 the rainfall is ample, but in the latter region it does 

 not grow a strong straw and is liable to lodge badly in 

 unfavorable weather. 



ENGLISH RYE-GRASS is interesting from a histor- 

 ical point of view, as it was the first of the true grasses 



