ORCHARD GRASS. 89 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ORCHARD GRASS WOOD MEADOW GRASS ROUGH STALK 

 MEADOW CHESS OR CHEAT ITALIAN RYE GRASS 

 MANY FLOWERED DARNEL CRAB GRASS. 



ORCHARD GRASS (Dactylis Glomerate.} 



With broadly linear, rather rough, pale and keeled leaves and a 

 dense panicle of one-sided clusters, on which the spikelets are much 

 crowded, each three to four flowered, both the glumes and the lat- 

 erally compressed-keeled [lower palet tapering into a short awn, 

 rough-ciliate on the keel. Flowers in early summer. (Gray). 



Whether a native of America or 

 Europe, or indigenous to bqth coun- 

 tries, it is well known that Orchard 

 grass is diffused more extensively than 

 almost any other grass, growing all 

 over Europe, the northwestern parts of 

 Africa, and in Asia Minor. Known 

 as Cock's foot in England for many 

 centuries, it was not appreciated as a 

 forage plant until sent to that coun- 

 try from Virginia. It is a perennial, 

 and grows upon congenial soils any 

 where between 35 and 47 degrees north 

 latitude. It likes a soil moderately 

 dry, porous, fertile and inclined to be sandy. On stiff, clay 

 soils, retentive of moisture, the roots do not acquire such a 

 vigor as to give a luxuriant top growth. The feeble- 

 ness of the roots upon such a soil makes them liable 

 to be thrown up by the earth. It may be grown successfully 

 on a lean, sterile sort, by a top dressing of stable manure, 

 yielding during a moderately wet season from two to three 

 crops. In its rapid growth in early spring lies one of its 

 chief merits, furnishing a rich bite for cattle earlier than 

 almost any other grass. It also grows later in the fall. It 



