IMPORTANCE OF THE GRASSES 309 



top. The plants may be annuals, as oats; winter annuals, 

 as winter wheat; or perennials, as timothy, brome grass or 

 blue grass. The habit of growth may vary greatly, from the 

 erect form of timothy to the creeping habit of buffalo grass 

 and the bent grasses. The leaves may be numerous at the 

 base of the stem and sparing above, or they may be small 

 and scanty at the base and more numerous along the stem. 

 The roots may be bulbous, as in timothy, or fibrous, as in 

 the annual species and many of the perennial ones. 



382. Why the Grasses Are Important. The grasses are 

 of great importance in our agriculture, for they supply, in 

 addition to the cereal grains, a very large part of the forage 

 which is fed to domestic animals. This forage may be in 

 the form of green herbage, either as pasture or for soiling; 

 preserved green herbage, or silage; or dried herbage, as hay, 

 straw, or fodder. A feature of the grasses which makes 

 them valuable pasture plants is the location of the growing 

 point of the leaf. This is near the base, so that the tip may 

 be grazed or clipped off several times and the leaf still con- 

 tinue to grow. The forage grasses add variety to the rota- 

 tion, supplying crops which may be used as meadows or 

 pastures, or short-season crops such as millet, which may 

 be used to occupy the land when an earlier-planted crop fails. 

 The perennial varieties add a mass of vegetable matter to 

 the soil; they thus improve its physical condition and their 

 decay increases the yield of annual crops which follow. They 

 also form a cover which prevents the loss of fertility by wash- 

 ing and other means of erosion. 



383. Comparative Value of Different Species. The 

 various meadow and pasture grasses differ little so far as the 

 feeding value of their products is concerned. They contain 

 about the same quantities of the important food elements, 

 and these elements are about as digestible in one grass or 



