DESCRIPTION OF GRASSES. 149 



The foregoing table of analyses, by Prof. Collier, of our 

 wild grasses, including many considered as troublesome 

 weeds, is a most valuable contribution to the chemistry of 

 cattle foods, and a few years more of equal industry, in this 

 section of the Department of Agriculture, will leave but 

 few of our known fodder plants unanalyzed. 



The great diversity of our soil and climate will often 

 render a grass valuable in one section which is found of no 

 economical value in another locality. Chemistry, by show- 

 ing the proportion of nutritive constituents in a grass, 

 which is found to grow good crops in any section of 

 country, will enable any one to determine its economic 

 value for cultivation in that locality. Every grass must be 

 brought to a practical test in cultivation before its value 

 can be determined for any locality, but a knowledge of its 

 chemical analysis will give an experimenter confidence in 

 the probable value of his labor. 



A large number of the grasses in this table seem to be 

 specially adapted to the Southern States. We shall only 

 glance at a few of them : 



DESMODIUM tick-seed, beggar-ticks is a deep-rooted 

 leguminous plant, which has attracted much attention in 

 the South as a plant that may take the place of clover, in 

 the rotation, on soil that will not sustain clover. It 

 takes its name from the rough seed-pods, which adhere to 

 clothing. Its analysis shows it to be fully equal, in the 

 proportion of nitrogen and other nutritive constituents, to 

 clover. The reports are that it nourishes even on the sand 

 barrens of the Atlantic seaboard. It is found excellent as 

 pasture and as hay having an effect similar to clover when 

 plowed under. It is annual. 



JAPAN CLOVER. This is another leguminous forage 

 plant, lately established in Southern States, and sup- 

 posed to have been brought in tea-boxes from Japan or 



