94 



THE GRASSES OF TENNESSEE. 



A prominent sheep raiser of Tennessee who has been carry- 

 ing a thousand sheep or more, says, during the summer it 

 will carry double as many sheep as blue grass, acre for acre ; 

 but that blue grass will furnish more and better winter 

 grazing. 



6. It may be sown in the spring or fall with small grain 

 or alone. It is best not to sow it with grain, as the extra 

 production of grass, when sown alone, is worth more than 

 the grain and grass grown together. It may be mown as 

 hay or cut with reapers or cradles, and bound in sheaves 

 like oats. 



WOOD MEADOW GBASS— {Poa nemoralis). 



Spikelets ovate, compressed, flowers two to ten in an open panicle ; 

 glumes shorter than the flowers ; lower palea compressed, keeled, 

 pointless, five nerved ; stamens two or three, seed oblong, free ; stems 

 tufted ; leaves smooth, flat and soft 



This, together with many others, be- 

 longs to the same family with blue grass. 

 It grows from one and a half to two 

 feet high ; has a perennial creeping root, 

 and an erect, smooth, slender stem. It 

 grows in swamps or watery soils, and 

 very rank, and flowers in June, ripening 

 its seed the following month. 



It has not been utilized as a meadow 

 grass in Tennessee, but from its luxu- 

 riant foliage, it would appear to be a 

 good kind for mixing in swampy soils 

 with other grasses, as stock are exceed- 

 ingly fond of it, affording, as it does, a 

 very fine, succulent, nourishing food. 

 On analysis it yielded water 87.58, 

 flesh-forming principles 3.22, fat-form- 

 ing principles .81, heat-producing prin- 

 ciples 3.98, woody matter 3.13, min- 

 eral matters 1.28, from 100 parts, cut green. It is thus, 



