90 THE GRASSES OF TENNESSEE. / 



is very hardy when well set, makes a great yield/ grows 

 rapidly and vigorously upon suitable soils, supplies a rich, 

 nutritious hay, which, compared with timothy, is in value 

 in the proportion of 7 to 10. It starts out early in spring, 

 and comes into blossom about the time of red clover. It 

 attains a height, upon good soils, of three feet, though upon 

 soils of great fertilitv it sometimes reaches the height of 

 five feet. After being cut, it springs up rapidly, sometimes 

 in rainy weather growing three or four inches within a 

 week. This quality of rapid growth unfits it for a lawn 

 grass unless cut every week. 



Nevertheless this very quality makes it stand unrivalled 

 as a pasture grass. The Hon. John Stanton Gould says in 

 his essay upon this grass : " The laceration produced by 

 the teetfi of cattle instead of injuring, actually stimulates 

 it to throw out additional leaves, yielding the tenderest and 

 sweetest herbage." 



The chief objection to Orchard gKass is that it grows too 

 much in stools or tussocks^ This can l.<e remedied by sow- 

 ifag a larger quantity of seed per acre. Never less than two 

 bushels (14 pounde to the bushel) per acre should be sown, 

 and two and a half bushels would even be preferable. Mr. 

 Gould says that if the meadows are dragged over in spring 

 with a fine toothed harrow, and then rolled, this disposition 

 will be completely overcome. The disposition to stool can 

 also be checked by sowing with, other grasses. A half gal- 

 lon of clover seed, one gallon of herds grass, and two bush- 

 els of Orchard grass,per acre, sown about the 25th of March, 

 in our la'titude, will make an excellent pasture. By the 

 middle of June, upon good soils, the amount of forage will 

 equal the best fields of clover. It should not, however, be 

 pastured the first season until August, however tempting it 

 may be. In this many Tennessee farmers have made a mis- 

 take. By pasturing before the roots are well established 

 much of the grass is pulled up and destroyed. I have met 

 with many farmers who condemned the Orchard grass for 



