478 APPENDIX. 



entire wealth of many of the richest counties in that State. It is a grass 

 relished by all cattle. I mean by this term all our domestic animals. It 

 has, in that State and elsewhere, been used as hay, by cutting when in 

 bloom, but I cannot recommend it as a hay grass, being too short and too 

 light after being dried. In our climate it will endure the frosts of winter 

 perhaps better than any other grass. It will not withstand our severe 

 droughts, and consequently should not be grazed closely alter June, in 

 order that it may accumulate sufficient growth to shade the roots during 

 the hot months of July and August, during which time, if dry, it makes 

 comparatively little growth unless an unusual amount of moisture is 

 in the soil. To realize the full value of this grass as a pasture grass, it 

 should never have its roots exposed to a broiling sun during summer, 

 letting the fall growth remain untouched until about the first of Novem- 

 ber, and then it may be grazed until the following June without injury. 

 Upon a good sward, thus treated, all kinds of stock may be wintered 

 with comparatively little cost. 



The preparation of the soil for seeding to blue grass is quite simple. 

 If cleared land, plow well in fall and winter, in order that the freezes may 

 comminute the soil thoroughly; harrow in February, sow one and a half 

 bushels clean seed per acre, and follow the harrow with a light brush, as 

 the seed will not germinate if covered deep by experience not over one 

 inch deep. If woodland, clean the soil of leaves or trash, either by 

 raking or burning, then sow and brush in. The first year the young grass 

 should not be grazed at all, as it requires two or even three years to become 

 well set and does not arrive at perfection until the sward is older than that. 

 The soil should not be allowed to become too loose, which may be pre- 

 vented by the tramping of stock in dry weather; nor should too much 

 growth be allowed year after year, as it will become greatly injured by 

 self-mulching. The proper time to pasture, after seeding, is after the seed 

 ripens in June, the second year; care should be taken never to graze this 

 too closely at any one time. The nutritive value of blue grass, according 

 to some eminent chemists, is not equal to that of timothy) clover or 

 orchard grass, either in flesh-forming principles or fatty matter. Among 

 the eminent names whose analysis asserts this fact, I would mention 

 Professor Horsford, formerly of Cambridge, Professors Way and Bous- 

 ingault. Yet these gentlemen may not have had specimens of this grass 

 in its greatest luxuriance; for all have acknowledged it here superior to 

 that in its native country. Notwithstanding these experiments, its many 

 good qualities recommend its general adoption, and whoever has lime- 

 stone land has blue grass land^ whoever has blue grass land has the basis 

 of agricultural prosperity; and that man, if he has not the highest type of 

 domestic animals, has no one to blame but himself. 



I will next name orchard grass, (dactylis glomerata.) This plant is also 

 A perennial, and in my estimation second to none. It is so well described 

 by that eminent botanist and secretary to the Massachusetts Agricultural 



