SEPTEMBF.n 7, iss;5. 



SCIENCE. 



331 



Grasses suitable for the western prairies, to take 

 the place of those wliich will be rapidly stampnl out 

 by close feeding, are sure to be found even without 

 the aid of the governmeut; but greater time will be 

 required. 



Prof. E. M. Slielton of Kansas agricultural college 

 has probably done more than any one else in the west 

 to test grasses and clovers, aiul diffuse information 

 in regard to the results, which are most gratifying. 

 At nearly all gatherings of farmers in the west, this 

 question of new grasses is a prominent topic of dis- 

 cussion. 



Wherever irrigation has been well tried, especially 

 on land wliich is light aiul well drained, the results 

 liave been quite surprising, converting a dry, hungry 

 meadow into a little oasis. tiucU a meadow is the 

 triumph of agricultural art. 



One of the most remarkable results of irrigation, 

 as viewed by a scientific man, is this: the list of 

 gr.isses will not remain the same, or maintain the same 

 proportion. The bad grasses will nearly all die out, 

 or improve in ([uality ; while the best ones will rapidly 

 increase. And again: experiments in England have 

 shown that irrigation causes many herbaceous plants, 

 distinct from grasses, such as plantain and butter- 

 cups, to give place to good grasses. Docks are not di- 

 minished by irrigation. The best grasses are a sign 

 of good land in tine condition. Sucli grasses are 

 hearty feeders, and are most sensitive to good treat- 

 ment. In a well-managed meadow, irrigatiou.in four 

 years increased the value threefold. 



Solon Robinson long ago e.\pressed the view, that, 

 if tlie streams of Connecticut were properly utilized 

 in irrigating the soil, they would lie more productive 

 in value than by turning all the water-wheels of the 

 state. More experiments in irrigation are much 

 needed in this country. 



liaron J. \i. Lawes, a most renowned experimenter 

 in agriculture, possessed an old p.isture having been 

 in permanent grass over a century. No fresli seed 

 of any kind was sown during this period. For some 

 seven years or more, lie experimented by applying 

 to this old pasture, on different plats, twelve different 

 kinds of manures. The results were very interesting 

 and gratifying. "Tlie manures, which much in- 

 creased the produce of hay, at the same time very 

 much increase.l its proportion of graminaceous herb- 

 age. The total miscellaneous herbage (chiefly weeds) 

 was the most numerous in kind, and nearly in the 

 greatest proportion, on the uiimuiwred land, — viz., 

 sixteen per cent, — while on the manured plat it de- 

 creased to two per cent. Every description of manure 

 diminished the number of species and the frequency 

 of occurrence of the miscellaneous or weedy herbage. 

 A few weeds were increased by the manures, such as 

 Uuraex and Achillaea." 



"The plants of a meadow," in the words of the 

 AriricitHural gnzetU, "live in harmony on the unma- 

 iiured open park, having nothing to fight for in a state 

 of nature ; but toss them a bone, ground fine, or any 

 other choice bit, and their harmonious companionship 

 terminates at once. Every act of improved cultiva- 

 tion occasions instant war. A grass likes the best 



that can be got. It will swallow soda, but not when 

 it can get potash. As a general principle, all manures 

 tend to drive out the weeds by increasing the better 

 herbage." A repetition of like experiments in this 

 country could not fail to give valuable results. 



In Europe some success has been reached in select- 

 ing and cullivating different varieties of Lolium pe- 

 renne, Dactylis glomerata, and Trifolium pratense. 



The field is a promising one for any careful and en- 

 thusiastic student. For tlirce years p.ast, I have been 

 studying hundreds of plants of red clover at all sea- 

 sons and stages of growth. I have plants growing, 

 the seeds of which came from marked plants which 

 varied much from each other. Plants in the fields 

 of red clover vary amazingly in many respects, which 

 influences their value for forage-crops. I believe our 

 fields of red clover to-day contain nearly or quite as' 

 great a variety of plants as would a field of Indian 

 corn, if we were to mix in a little seed of all the 

 varieties cultivated in any one state. 



Some of our grasses in cultivation are quite varia- 

 ble, notably the fescues, orchard-grass, and peren- 

 nial rye-grass. It was some time ago observed that 

 alfalfa of California, and lucerne of Europe, were 

 quite different in their capacity to endure dry weath- 

 er, though they belong to the same species. Differ- 

 ent treatment in widely separated countries for many 

 years has wrought a great change. 



The subject of changing seed, planting old seed, 

 mixing seed, raising it one year or more in a remote 

 country, and then returning to the starting-point, 

 deserves the attention of careful experimenters. 



The late Charles Darwin experimented on the 

 effects of cross and self fertilization of plants, and 

 found that in most cases plants from crossed stock 

 were earlier, hardier, germinated better, and yielded 

 more seeds, than those from seed of self-fertilized 

 plants, while crossing with foreign stock of the same 

 variety is a far greater improvement. The idea is to 

 cross the flowers of a plant with pollen from other 

 plants of the same variety, the seeds of which were 

 raised pure for five or more years in a remote locality, 

 fifty miles or more away. 



Mr. Darwin said, "It is a common practice with 

 horticulturists to obtain seeds from another place, 

 having a very different soil, so as to avoid raising 

 plants for a long succession of generations under the 

 same conditions; but, with all the species which 

 freely intercross by the aid of insects or the wind, it 

 woifld be an incomparably better jilan to obtain seeds 

 of the required variety, which had been raised for 

 some generations umler as different conditions as 

 possible, and sow them in alternate rows with seeds 

 matured in the old garden. The two stocks would 

 then intercross, with a thorough blending of their 

 whole organizations, and with no loss of purity to 

 the variety; and this would yield far more favorable 

 results than a mere exchange of seeds." 



In a word, with plants which may be easily crossed, 

 get some foreign seed of the same sort to mix with 

 yi)ur own seeds to raise seeds for ensuing crops. 



In 1877 I began some experiments of this kind 

 with Indian corn and with beans, and have since 



