144 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



FOUR OP THE GRASSES. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Secretary Plint, 

 ■we are enabled to present the reader with illus- 

 trations of four of the grasses common to our 

 New England farms, and just in season to bring 

 them to mind in order to make ])reparations for 

 spring sowing. The description of these grasses 

 we copy from Flint's "Grasses and Forage 

 Plants" a book which every farmer who wishes 

 more thoroughly to understand his business 

 ought to possess. 



Before the season for sowing clover,we mtend to 

 give four more varieties, viz.: the Timothy , Meadow 

 Foxtail, June, or Kentucky Grass, and the Mea- 



doio Fescue. 



RED TOP. 



^ This valuable grass, so common in all our cul- 

 tivated fields, has been an inhabitant of our soils 



for more than a 

 century. It is of 

 somewhat slow 

 growth, but of 

 good or medium 

 quality. It is 

 suited to moist 

 soils, though 

 common to all. 

 This grass is 

 probably rather 

 overrated by us. 

 It makes a pro- 

 fitable crop for 

 spending ; not 

 so large a crop 

 is obtained as 

 from Herds- 

 grass. It is a 

 ; good permanent 

 grass, and con- 

 sequently well 

 suited to our 

 pastures, stand- 

 ing our climate 

 as well as any 

 other grass. It 

 should be fed 

 close in pas- 

 tures, for if al- 

 lowed to grow 

 up to seed, the 

 cattle refuse it; 

 this fact seems 

 to show that it 

 is not so much 

 ' relished by cat- 

 tle as some of 

 the other pas- 

 ture grasses. — 

 The fact that 

 stock eat any 

 grass greedily 

 in the spring, is 

 no proof of its 

 excellence, or 

 nutritious qual- 

 ities ; since then 

 all gras«es arc tender and full of juice, and many 

 varieties of both grasses and shrubs are readily 



eaten, Avhich at a more advanced stage of growth 

 are refused. 



Thisgrass goes by various names, and is great- 

 ly modified by soil and cultivation. On a moist, 

 rich soil, it grows larger than on a poor thin soil, 

 and not _ only larger, but has a darker, purplish 

 color, Avith a stem varying from eighteen inches 

 to two feet or two and a half feet high ; while on 

 thin, poor, gravelly soils, it seldom grows over 

 twelve inches, and often not over five or six inches 

 high, while it has a lighter color. 



ORCHARD GRASS. 



Orchard grass floAvers in dense tufls. Its stem 

 is erect, about tlu-ee feet high. Root perennial. 



Flowers in Juno and July. Not uncommon in 

 fields and pastures. This is one of the most val- 

 uable and widely known of all the pasture grasses. 

 It became, soon after its introduction into England, 

 an object of special agricultural interest among 

 cattle feeders, having been found to be exceeding- 

 ly palatable to stock of all kinds. Its rapidity o{ 

 growth, the luxuriance of its aftcrmatli and its, 

 power of enduring the cropping of cattle, com- 



