152 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



WIRE GRASS ENGLISH BLUE GRASS (Poa compressa). 

 This grass is sometimes mistaken for Poa pratensis, June 

 grass, but is easily distinguished from the latter by its 

 shorter and flattened stalk, shorter leaves, shorter and 

 narrower panicle, with fewer branches. It has a remark- 

 ably solid stalk and produces a very heavy hay for its bulk. 

 It does not produce a large crop, yielding, even on rich 

 land, not more than 1% tons per acre; but it has a value, 

 per weight, 15 per cent, more than timothy hay. It never 

 kills out by freezing, and its creeping root makes it very 

 desirable as a pasture grass. It affords early and late 

 pasturage. Its analysis gives it a high position in the scale 

 of nutritious glasses. 



GAMA GRASS. This is a tall perennial grass, growing 

 from three even to six feet high, with broad leaves, some- 

 what like Indian corn. It is found native at the South, 

 from the mountains to the coast. When cut before seed- 

 heads appear, it is said to make a nutritious hay. It starts 

 immediately after cutting, and affords three or four green 

 crops in a season. Cattle and horses are fond of it cured 

 into hay. The roots are very strong and run deep, which 

 gives it vitality to stand drought. It must be a most 

 valuable grass for soiling. 



GRAMA GRASS (Bouteloua ottgostachya). This name is 

 given to several species of Bouteloua found on the great plains 

 on thte eastern slope of the Eocky Mountains and the high 

 table-lands of Texas. They are valuable grazing grasses. 

 They grow in bunches with a mass of short leaves at the 

 base. Its value is so great for the plains that efforts have 

 been made to cultivate it on the moister lands of the sea- 

 coast without success. 



We shall have occasion to refer to some other of these 

 grasses in application to pasture, meadow and soiling. 



