64 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



also. We grow wheat, barley, oats, rye, Indian corn, 

 rice, and millet for our own use ; and we grow almost 

 all other kinds of grasses for our cattle and horses. Of 

 course, everybody knows that hay is cut just when these 

 rich seeds are at their prime, and it is comparatively 

 valueless if allowed to grow over-ripe so that the grain 

 falls out on to the ground below. Besides these main 

 points, however, grasses as a group have a hundred 

 minor adaptations, which give them special advantages 

 in the race for the possession of the earth ; and, as to 

 each particular grass, it has so many little tricks and 

 devices of its own, that if I were to try to tell you all 

 about the hairs and awns and bristles on this single bit 

 of brome or of foxtail, we might sit here talking all the 

 afternoon, and even then not have finished. 



