No. 133.J 273 



Arena flavescpus, or yellow oat grass ; 18 inches high ; flowers 

 in July ; is a valuable grass. 



Agrostis vulgaris, or fine bent grass, or herds gras}? ; 18 inches 

 Iiigh ; flowers in July ; is an early grass. 



Agrostis stoloniferd, or florin ; it stools much ; 24 inches high ; 

 good on peat lands. 



All the foregoing grasses are perennial in a good soil. A rich 

 permanent meatlow for grass or pasture should always contain 

 several of them. The hay made of thera will generally weigh 

 about one-fifth part of the grasses out. Grasses are rather re- 

 markable for the amount of soda or potash in them.. Sprengel 

 found in one thousand pounds weight of rye grass hay, 



Potash and soda, 12.75 pounds. 



Lime and magnesia, 8.15 " 



Sulphuric acid, 2.50 " 



Phosphoric acid, . . .25 " 



Silica acid, 24.70 " 



Chloiine iron acid, 40 " 



This is from grass before it flowers. 



Lindly, in his vegetable kingdom fays, that Perjoon in his sy~ 

 nopsis, counts 812 species, being one-twenty-sixth pnrtof all the 

 species of plants enumerated by him. In the system of Ramer 

 Schultcs there are 1800. 



Lindley says: The distribution of cultivate^i grasses is one of 

 the most interesting ot all subjects. It is determined not merely 

 bj climate, but depends on the ci\ilization, industry and com- 

 merce of a people, and often on historical events. 



The value of grasses as fodder for cattle, ie hardly second to 

 that of grain for human food. The best fodder grasses of Europe 

 are usually dwarf species, or at least do not rise more than three 

 or four feet high, and the largest of these are apt to become hard 

 and wiry. 



Some grasses are used medicinally. Quitch or quick grass roots 

 have some reputation as substitute for .;arsaparil)a. Sugar i.s a 

 [A5icmbly No. l^.J 18 



