6 



2 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



materially influence the mechanical condition of the soil, 

 which exerts an influence on production, not second m 

 importance to fertility. To maintain such a condition, 

 grasses must he grown in the ordinary processes of till- 

 age. They are the balm which soothes the wound given 

 to Mother Earth by the ploughshare and other imple- 

 ments used in tillage. 



The question of grass production, therefore, is of 

 supreme importance to the farmer and because it is, any 

 practical information bearing upon the growth of grass- 

 es should merit his attention. 



Grasses But Little Knoivn. — ISTotwithstanding the 

 great value of grasses to the farmer, it would probably 

 be correct to say, that he knows less about them and 

 the best modes of growing them than about any other 

 crop or class of crops as are commonly grown on the 

 farm; nor is he altogether to blame for such lack of 

 knowledge. The farmers of this continent have not 

 had access to any book which deals with the question 

 of growing grasses, as applicable to all parts of the 

 United States and Canada. They have had access to 

 only such avenues of information bearing upon this 

 question, as have come from their own personal expe- 

 rience, that of their neighbors, or from the desultory 

 and inadequate discussion of these questiops in the ag- 

 ricultural press. 



It is not surprising, therefore, tliat the average tiller 

 of the soils knows about only a few gTasses ; those that 

 are cultivated in his Ideality. Inrludiiig clovers, these 

 are i)robably less in number than half a dozen. In 

 regard to some of these, though th-jy have grown upon 



