192 



Value as a Fodder. — We know very little about its value in this 

 respect, and I would ask residents of the districts in which it grows 

 to give it more attention. It produces a fairly leafy bottom, and is 

 probably eaten by stock with the other grasses when young, but while 

 still perfectly green and only in inflorescence. I have seen acres 

 of pasture in which it preponderates with scarcely a spike bitten 

 off. Nevertheless, arguing from analogy, it is probably a nutritious 

 grass. 



We have three species of Agropyrum, and they are peculiar to 

 Australia, with the exception that A. scabrum extends to New Zealand. 

 We know so little about the genus from Australian experience, that 

 perhaps a few notes of the experience of other countries in regard to 

 other species of Agropyrum may be of some use. I quote from Vasey's 

 " Agricultural Grasses and Forage Plants of the United States " 

 (1889). 



A. tenerum occurs mostly in low, moist ground, grows in clumps, 

 and is one of the best grasses for hay. 



A. repens* (Couch-grass of the United States ; Quack-grass). " The 

 farmers of the United States unite in one continuous howl of execra- 

 tion against this grass, and it seems strange, when every man's hand 

 is against it, that it is not exterminated. Yet we could never really 

 satisfy ourselves that its presence in meadows and pastures was such 

 an unmitigated curse. In lands where alternate husbandry is practised 

 it must be admitted to be an evil of great magnitude. Its hardiness 

 is such, and its rapidity of growth so great, that it springs up much 

 more rapidly than any crop that can be planted, and chokes it ; still, 

 this grass has many virtues. It is perfectly cosmopolitan in its habits. 

 It is found in all sorts of soil and climates. Its creeping roots are 

 succulent and very nutritive, and are greedily devoured by horses 

 and cows." 



Of A. glaucum (Blue stem or Blue joint), considered by some to be 

 a variety of the preceding, Professor Scribner writes : " It is the most 

 highly praised of the native grasses for hay. Wherever it occupies 

 exclusively any large area of ground, as it does frequently in the 

 lower districts, especially near Fort Benton, it is cut for hay. Naturally 

 it does not yield a great bulk, but its quality is unsurpassed. After 

 two or three cuttings the yield of hay diminishes so much that it is 

 scarcely worth the harvesting. It is then customary to drag a short- 

 toothed harrow over the sod, which breaks up the creeping roots or 

 underground stems, and each fragment then makes a new plant." 



Speaking of the genus in general in the United States, Mr. T. A. 

 Williams says : ' ' These grasses mature early, and are the chief forage 

 plants in the Western (U.S.A.) cattle districts, on which thrive the 

 choice beeves which command fancy prices in the eastern markets. 

 They have few equals among the grasses of the western prairies in the 

 quantity or quality of forage produced, and should be cultivated and 

 improved as much as possible/" 



* Or rather A. pseudo-repens, Scribner and Smith, p. 34, Bulletin No. 4, "Studies in 

 American Grasses " (1897). 



