PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 293 



tion uf milk, which augments sensibly and becomes of a superior quality.' 



"Says M. Lavallce: 



" ' The milk of cows for a whole month on good regain de Luzerne (second 

 mowing of Luzerne) was accurately measured, and the quantity of cream 

 per cent, taken with a galactometer. Three consecutive days did I take 

 the figures, which were iiientically the same. Then we put the cows to 

 the Briuno diet. I found the very first day of the change an augmentation 

 of eighteen per cent., but the following days that went down to ten per 

 cent. It must be borne iu mind that the rations of Luzerne and the rations 

 of Brome were of the same weight, I have had no sensible difference in 

 the quantity of cream, but with the dese-lait (milk v;eigher) I found that 

 the density of the milk was greater, 



"^It seems, too, that the butter made out of the milk of cows fed on 

 Brome is firmer, finer, better looking, of a better taste, and that it is made 

 quicker. 



" * This grass does not cost much to cultivate. It covers v/ell the ground, 

 tallying so thick that no other culturo can be so admirably clean. It accom- 

 modates itself with almost any soil that is not absolutely dry, aad can live 

 several years, perhaps six or eight. After being five years on the same 

 field, M. Lavalee did not see any diminution in the yield. 



" ' A peculiarity of the Brome of Schrader is that it presents at every 

 morning and on every bunch several epis (heads ?) where the grain altliough 

 tiot quite ripe is well formed and already consistent, oSering the ver\- rare 

 example of a plant perfectly green, bearing grain almost ripe. Mr. La- 

 vallee believes that this is one of the chief ca?ise« if the nutritious value of 

 this plant. 



" ' The yield in grain is very large, and gives at the first mowing a num- 

 ber of hectolitres superior to that of the handsomest oats. 



" * The Brome of Schrader yielded at the first mowing 17,300 kilos to the 

 hectare ^about sixteen thousand six hundred pounds to the acre) in a field 

 where a previous seeding to grass had not succeeded* tlie yield of the three 

 subsequent mowings has been 18,970 kilos, that is to say, the hectare has 

 yielded a total weight of 56,200 kilos. That product is the result of 

 fifteen m.onths^ culture, as the Brome keeps growing in autumn, and even 

 in winter, 



"'An hectare (about two arid a half acres) has yielded, at the second 

 mowing, sixty-five hectrolites (about 200 bushels, or eighty bushels per 

 acre !!3 Rather heavy crop ! — Tr. ) Supposing the first yield as heavy, 

 it Vv'ould make one hundred and thirty hectolitres harvested in one year ou 

 the same soil. 



" * To keep that crop in order requires very little trouble-, one rolling in 

 the spring, and that is all. To areate it is very simple; a good plowing, 

 preferably deep, then sow, harrow and roll over strongly twelve or fifteen 

 •days after, it grows up, and from that vegetates quite rapidly. One can 

 harvest a first crop in t'vo nionths, if sown in March or April. As S(ton as 

 that Brome has been mowed, one can j?ee disappear all the other plants, 

 cither annual or perennial, that had grown up with it. It is an essentially 

 choking plant, leaving after it no thistles, no jolleii, no chiendent (please, 

 sir, excuse my ignorance, but I don't know the English names of these two 



