1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



893 



its use ; where and when should it be used ? Will 



it take the place of herdsgrass ? Herds grass seed 



is so scarce and hiffh that a substitute is desirable. 



Newbury, Vt., 1870. Reader. 



OKCHAED GEASS. 



Enclosed you will find a specimen of grass that 

 appears to be working into my fields. Can you 

 give me its name, and something about its value and 

 character ? N. C. Luther. 



Attleboro', Mass., June 21, 1S70. 



Remaeks. — This is the Orchard Grass, or Rough 

 Cock's Foot — Dactylis glomerata. The above illus- 

 tration is copied by permission from Flint's Grasses 

 and Forage Crops, a book that ought to be in the 

 library of every Farmers' Club at least. We also 

 copy from this work the following description of 

 the Orchard Grass: Flowers in dense clusters; 

 stem erect, about three feet high, in good soil 

 sometimes five feet ; leaves linear, flat, dark green, 

 rough on both surfaces, which, with the fancied 

 resemblance of its clusters to the foot of a barn 



yard fowl, have given it the common name in 

 England of Plough Cock's-Foot. Root perennial. 

 Flowers in June and July. 



Mr. Flint says it makes an admirable mixture 

 with clover, as it blossoms about the same time 

 that the red clover does, but on account of its 

 early ripening it should not be mixed with herds- 

 grass or redtop. A Pennsylvania correspondent 

 of the Country Gentleman sowed about four acres 

 with orchard grass, clover and timothy. The first 

 year the new grass made a small appearance, the 

 others took well and he had a good crop. The 

 second year there was a good deal of orchard 

 grass mixed with the others, but it was hard and 

 wiry before the clover and timothy were fit to cut. 

 The third year the orchard grass was ripe long be- 

 fore the other grass was fit to cut, and the crop 

 was unsatisfactory, the seed was disseminated in 

 other fields by the manure, where it was standing 

 in bunches, and the writer said he should be glad 

 to be rid of it entirely. This shows the importance 

 of understanding its habits and character, and of 

 proper management. 



Another correspondent seeded eight acres of 

 pasture with orchard grass, redtop and timothy. 

 The orchard grass was two weeks ahead of the 

 other, but he had a fine pasture. 



Mr. A. B. Allen of New York has had thirty 

 years' experience with orchard grass. He says it 

 should be sown entirely alone, on clean ground, in 

 good tilth, and so heavily that it will occupy every 

 inch of the soil. Then no grass will pay better, 

 either as pasture or for hay. But for hay it must 

 be cut in early bloom. It makes the earliest and 

 latest pasture, and is the moht enduring grass he 

 knows. 



Some farmers in Kentucky claim that eighty 

 acres well set in orchard grass, and divided into 

 three lots, will feed more cattle than one hundred 

 acres of the best blue grass. Sometimes when the 

 weather is warm and rainy it grows in Kentucky 

 nearly or quite two inches in twenty four hours. 



Mr. X. A. Willard says in the Rural Xeto Yorker 

 that "wherever we have seen orchard grass it has 

 given abundant satisfaction. A few years ago we 

 saw on the farm of A. A. Mather, Esq., Burlington, 

 N. Y., seven acres that had been down four years, 

 having been se-eded at the rate of two and one-half 

 bushels per acre. The average yield for the four 

 years was stated by Mr. M. at fully four tons to the 

 acre, two crops being taken each year. It stands 

 the drought well." He also suggests its use where 

 daisies abound, as it ripens early, and grows so 

 luxuriantly as to crowd them out. 



The Practical Farmer says, "an orchard grass sod 

 on being ploughed up is always found to be black 

 and rich. It is a meliorater and improver of the 

 soil." 



A field sown with it more than twenty years ago, 

 and which we see every summer, still yields a fair 

 crop of this grass. All stock like it. Sheep, it is 

 said, will pass over every other grass to feed upon it. 



