Rough-Stalked Meadow Grass. 103 



Vasey), writes that " in portions of the Western 

 States this grass has, for some years, been very 

 highly recommended," and that " in the Eastern States 

 it has been cultivated for 150 years or longer, and 

 highly valued." Jared Elliott, writing in 1749, spoke 

 of it as growing tall and thick, making a more soft 

 and pliable hay than timothy, and better adapted for 

 pressing and shipping for use of horses on shipboard. 

 He says that it never becomes so coarse and hard, 

 but the stalk is sweet and tender and eaten without 

 waste, and another writer quoted by Dr. Vasey, Mr. 

 Charles L. Flint, testifies to the same effect. The 

 tenderness of the stems is most remarkable. On one 

 occasion I had sheaves of this grass cut in a thoroughly 

 ripened state, as the grass was grown for the sake of 

 the seed, and yet my cows ate up with relish every part 

 of the grass after the seed had been threshed out. The 

 stems, however dry, are so tender that they break 

 asunder with a slight twitch of the fingers. The grass, 

 when allowed to grow tall, and by itself, is so tender 

 that it is liable to be laid by wind and rain, but if it 

 were mingled with a sufiicient proportion of timothy to 

 keep it erect I see no reason why it should not be then 

 grown for hay. 



Rough-stalked Meadow grass (Poa trivialis) is well 

 known to be a very valuable grass in certain situations, 

 and, after writing at length on it, Sinclair concludes 

 "that the Poa trivialis, though highly valuable as a 

 permanent pasture grass on rich and sheltered soils, 

 is but little adapted for the alternate husbandry, and 

 improfitable for any purpose on dry exposed situations." 

 Elsewhere he says that on such situations " it yearly 

 diminishes, and ultimately dies oif, not unfrequently in 

 the space of four or five years." As regards produc- 

 tiveness, a reference to the table will show that it 

 stands at 60, or 40 per cent, less than the first three 

 grasses given. But notwithstanding what Sinclair has 

 said — and I need hardly say that I differ with him with 



