CHAPTER VII. 



THE CLIMATE AND SEASONS, AND THEIR INFLU- 

 ENCE ON THE GRASSES. 



We now come to consider the influence of climate 

 upon the quantity and nutritive quality of the grasses. 



No crop is more dependent on the seasons than the 

 grasses. Every farmer knows that a moist spring, with 

 raina evenly distributed over the months of April, May, 

 and June, will insure him the most luxuriant crops of 

 grass and hay ; and he knows, also, that a dry, cold 

 spring is fatal to their rapid and healthy development, 

 and that he must, in such a spring, expect a compara- 

 tively small crop. These and many similar facts are 

 familiar to every one. 



It has also been found by observation that the grasses 

 will vegetate when the temperature of the air is above 

 the freezing point of water (32° Fahrenheit), provided 

 the temperature of the soil ranges from 35° to 40°, 

 while a lower temperature checks their growth. Vege- 

 tation, at temperatures higher than these, depends much 

 on the amount of moisture and heat, both of the soil and 

 the atmosphere. 



Grass will not vegetate when the temperature of 

 the air is higher than 66°, unless the soil is very moist. 

 When the vapor, of the air is at its maximum, or when 

 the air is saturated with moisture, vegetation advances 

 with the greatest rapidity ; and this most frequently 

 happens with us in the earlier growing months, April, 

 May, and June. But when the moisture in the atmos- 



