168 AGROPYRON REPENS, BEAUV. 



country. It comes from Europe, though sometliing very much 

 like it is common on the great western phiins, where it affords an 

 excellent pasture 



The rootstocks till the soil, and much resemble those of June 

 grass, only they are larger. The leaves near the ground much 

 resemble those of Timothy; the stems are one to three feet high, 

 and each is terminated by a slender spike from two inches to a 

 foot in length. It seldom produces seed till the plants become 

 somewhat dwarfed or stunted by crowding or exhaustion of the 

 soil. 



Gould tells the truth when he says: ''^The farmers of the 

 United States unite in one continuous howl of execration against 

 this grass." They generally dread its presence, which most of 

 them are ignorant of till it has become well established, often in 

 many places on their farms. It is a clean, sweet grass, and affords 

 much good pasture. In good soil, if not too old and crowded, it 

 Avill cut a fine crop of hay of excellent quality, not surpassed in 

 value by that of Timothy. 



The editor of the Rural New Yorker says. '^ItAvill endure 

 the severest droughts of the North; it will thrive in sandy or 

 clayey soils ; it is early to appear in the spring ; it is the first to 

 carpet a field with green after it has been mown or closely 

 cropped ; it makes a compact sod for tiie door-yard or lawn, and 

 will become as 'velvety' under the frequent use of the lawn- 

 mower as the bent grasses, red top or poas. Its merits are 

 many. We do not know of any true grass about which more 

 may be said in its praise. The great fault Avith quack is that it 

 seems to be too much of a good tiling. A field recently plowed 

 for corn next spring, which had been in grass eight years or 

 more, was nearly all quack — Timothy having disappeared en- 

 tirely, and the rest forming a small percentage of blue grass and 

 red top. The cultivation which we shall give the corn will prac- 

 tically subdue the quack unless the next summer should prove 



