180 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 
mous quantities of forage. In the latter locality, ac- 
cording to Storer, it is cut four or five times in a 
season. Italian rye-grass is practically an annual, but 
by letting it ripen seed before cutting the hay, which 
it is perfectly safe to do as far as quality of the hay is 
concerned, it reseeds itself, and is thus to all purposes 
a perennial. The old plants do not actually die at the 
end of the first year, but they do not amount to any- 
thing after the first crop year. English rye-grass is 
little better in this respect, though it is called a peren- 
nial. The European farmer thoroughly understands 
these grasses, and under his care they are the best of 
all the tame grasses. The American farmer has never 
been noted for bestowing especial attention to his 
grass-fields. He prefers a grass like timothy, that does 
not need careful attention, though he loses much from 
the usual manner in which he handles his timothy 
meadows. 
West of the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon and 
Washington, and in the corresponding portion of 
northern California, Italian rye-grass has gained con- 
siderable popularity. It does particularly well on 
moist lands reclaimed by dyking. It is not generally 
met with in that section, but a few farmers prize it 
highly. It grows well on irrigated lands in central 
Washington, and on the upland wheat soils of that 
State and northern Idaho, near the mountains where 
the rainfall is ample, but in the latter region it does 
not grow a strong straw and is liable to lodge badly in 
unfavorable weather. 
ENGLISH RYE-GRASS is interesting from a histor- 
ical point of view, as it was the first of the true grasses 
