60 



English or Canada Blue Grass Poa Compressa. 



3. Panicle. 4. Upper leaf. 5. Spikelet. 6. Empty 

 glumes. 7. Floral glume seen from the side. 



ENGLISH BLUE GRASS OR CANADA BLUE GRASS. 

 (Poa compressa.} (Grazing and Hay.) 



In many of its features 

 this grass resembles the Ken- 

 tucky blue grass, but it has a 

 more creeping habit, narrower 

 panicles and flattened stems. 

 The leaves have a deep bluish 

 tint and it deserves the name 

 of blue grass more than the 

 blue grass does. 



This grass does not re- 

 quire for its growth such fer- 

 tile soils of calcareous origin 

 as the Poa pratensis or blue 

 grass. It is more hardy. It 

 will thrive upon dry, sandy, 

 thin soils. It flowers later than 

 blue grass proper but its 

 blades appear very early. 

 Stock are very fond of it and 

 it is rich in nutritive matter 

 but the amount of its foliage 

 is not great. Gould says: 

 "Cows that feed upon it both in pasture and in hay, give more milk and 

 keep in better condition than when fed on any other grass. Horses fed 

 on this hay will do as well as when fed on timothy hay and oats combined. 

 Sheep fatten astonishingly when fed upon it." This is high commenda- 

 tion but this commendation is more applicable to this grass when grown 

 upon the soils and in the climate of New York than when grown in Ten- 

 nessee. But little of it is ever seen in Tennessee, except among the 

 mountains of East Tennessee. It is known in some sections as the "blue 

 grass of the North." It is rarely sown in Tennessee. The price of 

 the seed is quoted at $14 per 100 pounds or $2 per bushel. It is easily 

 distinguished from blue grass by its compressed stems, its lower habit of 

 growth, the want of fuzziness on its seed, its smaller panicles and by its 

 intense bluish color. It deserves to be tried in Tennessee upon those 

 soils where blue grass will not grow. Many farms in the more sandy 

 regions of the state would probably increase their grazing capacity by the 

 introduction of this grass, as it will withstand drought better than blue 

 grass. It withstands colcl as well. On good soils it will grow to the 

 height of two feet and may be mowed for hay, of which it will make a 

 yield of from one ton to one and a half tons per acre. The grass is said 

 to lose less in drying than any other economic grass. 



ROUGH MEADOW GRASS (Poa trivialis.} (Pastures.) 

 This grass is a perennial .and is known in Lombardy as the queen of 

 forage plants (La regina dell 'erbe.) It is closely related to blue grass 

 but it has no conspicuous rootstocks and has rough stems and sheaths: 



