MISCELLANY 225 
and is greedily eaten by all classes of stock. Yet reed 
canary-grass is practically unknown to American farm- 
ers because of its exceedingly poor seed habits. Its 
seed falls almost the moment it is mature, and it is 
very difficult to get a stand from apparently good seed. 
Certain strains of this grass, however, hold the seed 
fairly well, and there is an opportunity for the plant 
breeder to add a valuable grass to the limited list of 
good American farm grasses by producing a strain of 
reed canary-grass with good seed habits. 
Bermuda grass, the best pasture-grass in the South, 
and one of the best in the world, as stated elsewhere in 
this volume, does not produce seed in this country, ex- 
cept in parts of Florida, Arizona, and Southern Cali- 
fornia. In one respect this is an important advantage, 
because Bermuda, like Johnson grass, is very tenacious 
of life, and, when once established, is decidedly diffi- 
cult to eradicate, unless one thoroughly knows how to go 
about it. Itis, perhaps, fortunate under the circum- 
stances that it has such poor seed habits. On the 
other hand, the seed is small and lacking in vitality, 
so that even when the seed is available, it is seldom 
possible to get a perfect stand from it, and it is, there- 
fore, usually propagated from pieces of sod. 
Some grasses propagate so readily from the seed as 
to render them a menace to the farmer. Crab-grass 
and Johnson grass belong to this class. If Johnson 
grass had the seed habits of Bermuda grass, it would 
not be the great pest it is, for, although its root-stocks 
are very tenacious of life, it spreads mostly from the 
seed. Most of our otherwise valuable wild grasses are 
not adapted to cultivation because of poor seed habits. 
