GRASSES OF MINOR IMPORTANCE l8l 



to be grown under domestication for hay and pasture 

 purposes. To the early English farmer all grasses 

 were alike. No attempt was made to separate them 

 and secure pure seed of the various kinds. When the 

 attempt was made, this was the first grass of which 

 pure seed was placed on the market, and the conserva- 

 tive English farmer has stuck to it now for nearly 

 three centuries. It was introduced from England into 

 Germany and France. In the language of both these 

 countries, in order to preserve the English pronuncia- 

 tion, the word " rye " was spelled r-a-i. It seems that 

 some later English writers imported this word back 

 into English, changing the i to y, thus producing the 

 term ' ' ray ' ' grass, sometimes used for the rye-grasses. 

 The name " rye-grass " is somewhat unfortunate, since 

 it leads to confusion. The rye-grasses are not at all like 

 the common cereal bearing that name. Neither are 

 they like the so-called wild rye-grasses of our Western 

 States. But this is not a matter of much importance, 

 because of the small part these two grasses seem des- 

 tined to play in American agriculture. 



Italian rye-grass is sometimes used to secure a 

 quick growth on lawns where blue-grass is not easily 

 grown. This is particularly the case around Wash- 

 ington, D. C. It is very useful for this purpose. As 

 stated elsewhere, it is probable that the rye-grasses 

 would prove useful in pasture mixtures in much 

 of the region in which blue-grass is now the standard 

 grass. 



The seed of the rye-grasses weighs about 20 lbs. 

 per bushel. Seedsmen recommend two to three bush- 

 els of seed per acre when sown alone. In mixtures 



